Published: November 11, 2007 01:03 am            

Honoring veterans honors Americans

There’s a great Howard Chandler Christy poster I love, printed in 1919, of a woman (Liberty) showing us a long list of names under the heading “Americans All.”

The poster was created to promote the Victory Liberty Loans following World War I.

The names on the “Honor Roll” listing include Du Bois, Smith, O’Brien, Cejka, Haucke, Pappandrikopolous, Andrassi, Villotto, Levy, Turovich, Kowalski, Chriczanevicz, Knutson and Gonzales.

It makes you think about how many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds have contributed to America’s history. It’s not a new thing. It makes you wonder just who our veterans were and are as we commemorate Veterans Day.

Here’s a statistical glimpse of who our veterans are — all of them Americans.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau there were 23.7 million military veterans in the United States in 2006. Of that amount 1.7 million of them were women.

A total 16 percent of Gulf War veterans in 2006 were women.

African Americans made up 2.4 million of last year’s veterans, 1.1 million were Hispanic, 292,000 were Asian, 169,000 were Native Americans (including native Alaskans), 28,000 were Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders.

9.2 of those veterans were age 65 or older last year and 1.9 million were younger than 35.

Thirty-three percent of all veterans living last year served during the Vietnam era between 1964 and 1975. That’s 8 million people. There were 3.2 million veterans alive last year who served during World War II and 3.1 million who served during the Korean War.

We tend to forget how long some people serve their country. There were 4.6 million who served during both Gulf Wars, from 1990 to the present.

Veterans who served during Vietnam and the Gulf War totaled 430,000.

A total of 350,000 veterans living last year served in both the Korean War and Vietnam. There were 294,000 who served in World War II and the Korean War. And, 78,000 veterans alive last year served during World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam.

As of Oct. 2 of this year there were still three U.S. World War I veterans still living according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

There were 6.1 million veterans living last year with a disability and more than half that amount were over the age of 65. Last year veterans ages 18 to 64 who were in the labor force totaled 11.1 million. And, 5.9 percent of veterans were living in poverty last year.

In the last presidential election a total of 17.4 million veterans voted. That means 74 percent of veterans in the U.S. cast ballots in that election. Only 63 percent of non-veterans voted for president in 2004.



Steve Gillespie is managing editor of

The Meridian Star. E-mail him at

sgillespie@themeridianstar.com.

        

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