For those of us in the US, today is Memorial Day. A day set aside to honor those who gave their lives in the service of their country to protect and defend the Constitution and to free people from tyranny. Just looking at some of the major engagements for which there are still living veterans, the total deaths come to:

• World War II 405,399
• Korean War 53,686
• Vietnam War 58,209
• Beirut Deployment 266
• Gulf War 258
• Afghanistan 1413
• Iraq War 4430

(Source)

The US currently has several hundred thousand service members deployed or otherwise stationed abroad. They are fighting to bring peace and order to post-Taliban Afghanistan, assisting the Iraqis in securing their own country, supporting the Lybian Rebels, satisfying our defense pacts to protect South Korea and Japan, and working to increase our allies military readiness. They are in places we know about and places we don’t. These are the men an women who daily put their lives at risk to protect us, they are the ones who are lucky enough to not be honored on this Memorial Day, but some of them will be honored next year.

Currently the administration is working to bring many of them home, but I hope the President continues to listen to the commanders on the ground so that the ultimate sacrifice that so many have made for those in another land will not have been in vain.

So many people use the long weekend and often good weather to have BBQs, go camping, go to the beach, and otherwise use it as a celebratory holiday, it’s easy to forget what Memorial Day is about. Memorial Day is to honor those who have given their lives for their country.

Update – I inadvertently omitted the Korean War. That has been corrected. Since the source I used didn’t have a number listed for combat casualties for the Korean War, I adjusted all the numbers to reflect total deaths.