With so many of us being past or present military, I thought I'd post here, I don't post often anymore (almost retired
![Wink ;)](//www.nukeworker.com/forum/Smileys/new/wink.gif)
). This is what I posted in my local paper website this morning, as they ran a story covering the Anniversary:
By the time the war ended, almost 10% of the population of the US was IN the military(12.8 M / 133M) - 40% of them as volunteers. 1million were minorities, in segregated units. 1/2 million were women (often serving very near front lines). 400,000 military died over 4 years.
In 1941, our nation was woefully unprepared for war. Europe was under total domination by Germany (except England and Switzerland). Our government was behaving in an isolationistic and not my problem mode.
After the attack, the American population stepped up, stood up, and pulled together. Sacrifice and hard work went beyond the soldiers, and included all levels of society.
There is a reason this is called the greatest generation - never before or after has America pulled together this much for the common good.
Yes, bad things were done in the name of security and wartime - Japanese - American internment was one of the most awful. Nothing and nobody is perfect.
I hope that if faced with a similar situation (and the American population came together very quickly after 9-11) we would pull together again.
Think about these heroes from the past as we consider our priorities after the recent election. We are still America. These people fought and died to keep us America.
So for today, let's BE America.