Memorial Day

Regardless of what anyone personally thinks about war, we as a nation should honor our veterans who have fought and who have given their lives to protect the freedom and human rights of people throughout the world.  Below is a fact sheet that may help people realize the amount of brave soldiers who have died for causes our government deemed necessary since the birth of our nation. I applaud their valor and hope the current war on terrorism ends soon so the sons and daughters, the husbands and wives, the mothers and fathers and the friends and loved ones of many can return home and begin to live their lives again in the peace and safety for which they have attempted to secure for us all.

 

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

 

~ Moina Michael ~

(1915)

 

  

 

Fact Sheet: America’s Wars

As of November 2005

courtesy of the Veterans Administration

 

American Revolution (1775-1783)

Total U.S. Servicemembers 217,000

Battle Deaths 4,435

Non-mortal Woundings 6,188

War of 1812 (1812-1815)

Total U.S. Servicemembers 286,730

Battle Deaths 2,260

Non-mortal Woundings 4,505

Indian Wars (approx. 1817-1898)

Total U.S. Servicemembers (VA estimate) 106,000

Battle Deaths (VA estimate) 1,000

Mexican War (1846-1848)

Total U.S. Servicemembers 78,718

Battle Deaths 1,733

Other Deaths in Service 11,550

Non-mortal Woundings 4,152

Civil War (1861-1865)

Total U.S. Servicemembers (Union) 2,213,363

Battle Deaths (Union) 140,414

Other Deaths in Service (Union) 224,097

Non-mortal Woundings (Union) 281,881

Total Servicemembers (Conf.) 1,050,000

Battle Deaths (Confederate) 74,524

Other Deaths in Service (Confederate) ¹ 59,297

Non-mortal Woundings (Confederate) Unknown

Spanish-American War (1898-1902)

Total U.S. Servicemembers (Worldwide) 306,760

Battle Deaths 385

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater) 2,061

Non-mortal Woundings 1,662

World War I (1917-1918)

Total U.S. Servicemembers (Worldwide) 4,734,991

Battle Deaths 53,402

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater) 63,114

Non-mortal Woundings 204,002

Living Veterans Less than 50

World War II (1941 –1945)

Total U.S. Servicemembers (Worldwide) 16,112,566

Battle Deaths 291,557

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater) 113,842

Non-mortal Woundings 671,846

Living Veterans 3,525,769

Korean War (1950-1953)

Total U.S. Servicemembers (Worldwide) 5,720,000

Battle Deaths 33,741

Other Deaths (In Theater) 2,833

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater) 17,672

Non-mortal Woundings 103,284

Living Veterans 3,256,925

Vietnam War (1964-1975)

Total U.S. Servicemembers (Worldwide) 8,744,000

Deployed to Southeast Asia 3,403,000

Battle Deaths 47,424

Other Deaths (In Theater) 10,785

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater) 32,000

Non-mortal Woundings 153,303

Living Veterans 8,054,993

Desert Shield/Desert Storm (1990-1991)

Total U.S. Servicemembers (Worldwide) 2,322,332

Deployed to Gulf 694,550

Battle Deaths 147

Other Deaths (In Theater) 235

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater) 1,590

Non-mortal Woundings 467

Living Veterans 2,015,235

War on Terrorism (2001 – Present)

Total U.S. Servicemembers (Worldwide) 1,390,765

Deployed to Iraq & Afghanistan 185,329

Battle Deaths 1,674

Other Deaths (In Theater) 563

Non-mortal Woundings 15,991

Living Veterans ² 433,398

 

America’s Wars Total

U.S.

Military Service During Wartime 43,185,893

Battle Deaths 652,696

Other Deaths (In Theater) 14,416

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater) 525,223

Non-mortal Woundings 1,447,281

Living War Veterans 18,155,573

Living Veterans (Periods of War & Peace) 24,387,036

___________________________________

Let’s Bring Back The Foot Races

[Reposted due to extreme laziness]

 

As a preface to this entry, I’d like to say that when I tried to publish this entry with the title "Let’s Bring Back The Nude Foot Races", the wonderful MSN censors wouldn’t let me use the horribly decadent word "nude".

 

Thank you, MSN for improving my moral standards and Happy Valentine’s Day to all…

 

According to history, Valentine’s Day is the day for lovers and birds. Nowadays we choose our valentines and traditionally send them cards, flowers and candy. [Consider this a gentle reminder for the men...Valentine's Day is TODAY!] The lover’s holiday has its beginnings in the 4th century B.C. in Rome. The Romans held an annual lottery where young men would draw a young woman’s name from a box. The couple would be assigned to each other the entire year for entertainment and pleasure. This celebration, traditionally was held on February 15 and also included banquets, dancing and foot races run in the nude.

Around A.D. 496, early church fathers sought an end to the naughty pagan practice, but knew better than to upset the citizens by removing the lottery completely. [Leave it to the church to strip the enjoyment out of a perfectly fine hedonistic celebration] Instead, they had teenagers pull the names of saints from the box. The teen was supposed to spend the year emulating that saint’s life as much as possible, which was definitely not as much fun as naked foot races. St. Valentine was chosen as the patron saint of the new event, and young Roman men resorted to courting females by sending handwritten notes delivered on February 14. [okay, guys get busy writing and make it good! I want to see some real effort in the notes and remember the nude foot races come AFTER the notes are written!] It also was believed that this was the day birds chose their mates. What bird you saw on this day was meant to foretell the type of person you would marry. Another way to foretell who your lover was going to be was to put some bay leaves under your pillow and you would dream of your future husband or wife. [Or you'd get hungry from sniffing the bay leaves and crave an Italian sausage...]

 

 

 

Todays tidbit:

Candy is dandy,

But

Liquor is quicker.

 

 

Say I love you  in any language worldwide….