How Many Sacrificed Lives for Freedom?
David Rhodes
As we celebrated Memorial Day this past Monday I started wondering how many Americans have sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom in wars and conflicts over the years. It is difficult to find two sources with the exact same numbers but they are all relatively close.
American Revolution - 4,435
War of 1812- 2,260
Mexican War - 13,284
Civil War - 618,000
Spanish American War - 2,446
World War I- 116,516
World War II- 405,399
Korean War - 36,574
Vietnam War- 58,220
Gulf War- 383
Iraq/Afghanistan- 6,607
Source: Department of Veteran Affairs as of Jan 1, 2015
This is not inclusive of 64 other conflicts from the Barbary Pirates to the Bay of Pigs to bombing in Beirut that resulted in 1000’s of more deaths. So with the 1,264,123 in declared wars and another 6,300 in other conflicts and operations the total is somewhere around 1,270,427. We all know that documentation wasn’t very good in the early days of this country so that is a close best guess based on the available information.
I thank them all for the sacrifice and I thank their families for going on and moving forward to continue the great work of building a great nation built upon these sacrifices!
Comment
I think the world also needs to thank the millions of American veterans who served and gave of their time, talent and treasure. Many of those who are lucky enough to return, returned different than when they left, some with scars that we can see and some with scars that we can't. We owe them all an incredible debt one we can never hope repay but a debt nonetheless. It is with the deepest humility and sincerity that we express on behalf of everyone at the pennwell Corporation our most heartfelt gratitude for all the sacrifice and service the American military service personnel have offered in the name of freedom and liberty.
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