For those who wonder how many Vets are in their AO and how much they contribute as either Compensated for Mil Injuries or retirement then you can start here. Veteran Population - National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics Injured or retired Vets are good for an area's economic health.
We lost two ww11 veterans from my small town this past week. Mr. Bruce Rochelle 97 yrs who volunteered at age 19 after Pearl Harbor.He choose the navy and was assigned to the armed guard The armed guard was responsible for defending US and Allied merchant ships. Bruce served as Signalman aboard Liberty ships in both the Atlantic and Pacfic theatres. Also Mr.Loyd Collins aged 107 passed the same week,he was one of the oldest living survivors of that conflict . We do not have people of that caliber anymore. Trump,2020.
The WW2 vets are disappearing in the same way that WW1 vets had preceded them...I still recall, as a child, in the 1950's seeing news casts (in black and white) reporting on the death of the last American Civil War veterans. I used to chat to a WW1 vet on my way to and from grade school. He had been gassed at the Somme. He didn't talk of the war much, but he liked to have a good chinwag at his front gate. I also had the privilege of talking to a veteran who landed in Gallipoli in 1915. He had been awarded the Military Medal min WWI Military Medal - Wikipedia for his bravery. He spoke of his experiences at Gallipoli, but mostly of the strange and unusual things that he had seen...he did not speak of the fighting itself, but of what it was like being there. He had a healthy respect for the Turks as fighters. I was once given the task of escorting Nancy Wake whilst she was visiting the unit that I was then serving in. Nancy Grace Augusta Wake She was a character. She was not shy about talking about her exploits, and was also not reticent in expressing her hatred for the wartime Boche.
Never heard of her before . Pretty damned impressive . Another fine example , and courageous part , of our greatest generation .
Interesting. Hadn't seen the state break down before. I'm one of 167 50 to 60% disabled Vets in my county, and one of 57 for my age group. No other Vets on my block. At least one Ph.D. who stayed in school to avoid the draft (and one of the most conservative guys I know).
Interesting. In my current choice of volunteering I am in meetings with some who dodged the draft and now have come full circle to help Vets. Even a Bank president who volunteered (in private) to help a Vet do fall clean up of their home. The stats are helpful in proving that Vets income provide work for others as we can prove that 4 million a month from 100% Compensation is injected into our economy. This also proves we have very few homless Vets as we take care of our own. Now if we could end all these wars!
Amen. My experience with those who didn't serve while the draft was on is generally positive. I used to take a local HS class to a homeless Vet event every April. The gent running it changed it to August (making it impossible to take HS students) so we dropped that activity. Some REAL eye opening for those students, as there were females with kids, as well as males. They never expected that. Concur with your remarks on getting out of the endless wars. Sadly, China appears to be getting ready to take us head on in the next decade or so. All the indicators are there, and we haven't really got the same Cold War preps in place we had with the Soviets. Sad, as I've got a daughter in uniform and a son-in-law in the reserves. Of course this old war horse would help in any way I could, if they'd take me.
