"Veteran's Day, 2020"

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Essay from Essex

“Veteran’s Day, 2020”

November 11, 2020

 

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.”

                                                                                                                               “In Flanders Field,” May 3, 1915

                                                                                                                                John McCrae (1872-1918)

 

While this is a day for remembering and honoring those who serve and have served in our nation’s armed forces, it is remarkable how distanced most of us have become from military personnel and from the duties they perform that help keep us free. It was not always so. 

 

Out of a population of 132 million Americans in 1940, 16 million served in World War II, roughly 0.12% of the population. Today, 1.4 million Americans are on active duty, or 0.004% of today’s population. In 1960, before Vietnam but when the Draft was still in force, 2.5 million Americans were in the armed forces, or 0.014% of the then population of 181 million.

 

In 1980, 0.18% of all American were veterans; today the number is closer to 0.05% and declining. Demographics are changing. The number of male veterans is expected to fall by half over the next two decades, while the number of female veterans is expected to double. In 1975, according to a 2017 Pew Research study, 0.81% of U.S. Senators were veterans; today that number is closer to 0.20%. This has consequences, as love of country and respect for our history and flag are more common among veterans than among the population as a whole, according to the same Pew study. 

 

Both of my grandfathers served in the military – my Grandfather Williams during the Spanish-American War and my Grandfather Hotchkiss as an honorary Colonel in the First World War. Neither saw combat. However, combined, their six sons and three sons-in-law all served in World War II, and all except one – a medical doctor – in combat. One was wounded – on Okinawa – but all survived. I am the only one of my parent’s nine children and their eighteen grandchildren to have served in the military, and I was only in for six months of active duty, just prior to Vietnam.

 

“Freedom is not free” is an over-used idiom, but it bears a truth – over a million Americans have died in the Nation’s wars since independence from Britain was declared in 1776. Its words are engraved on the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Our Nation, the lamp that lights the world, would not be here were it not for those who went to war, some of whom sacrificed their lives, so that freedom would reign.

 

We should, perhaps, consider reinstituting the Draft. We do not face a major war, but preparedness is always crucial, and national service has other benefits. It helps youth mature. It gives youth a sense of their Country. It is an equalizer, in that all recruits are treated the same. It makes no difference to your drill sergeant if you are just out of Harvard, a recent graduate of Illinois Central Community College in Peoria, or if you are off the streets of Chicago. He (or she) does not care if you are black, white, Hispanic or Asian. He does not care what religion you might be, how much money you have, or who your father and mother are. He cares about one thing – preparing you to be ready for what lies ahead.

 

As we take a few minutes this day, remembering at the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month when the “guns of August” were finally stilled, we should discuss and debate the value of a Draft, for ourselves and our youth, and how it might bind us all closer to this Nation we call home, the United States of America.