How many American Military Veterans are there today?

Answer 1

Depends on how you define what a veteran is. You probably come across a number of veterans each day and don't even know it.

I am highjacking your question here, just wanted to let you know up front, to address a few things regarding veterans.


What is a Veteran?

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.

You can't tell a veteran just by looking.


What is a veteran?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is out weighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Marine Corps drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is your next-door neighbor, who endured fierce door-to-door fighting in Fallujah only to see his best friend blown up by a terrorist carbomb while returning from patrol.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of the Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and savior and sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more that the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".

Remember Veterans Day and Memorial Day,

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, And whose coffin is draped by the flag,

Who allows the protester to burn the flag."



Always honor and respect our vets regardless of your politics or opinion of warfare.

There is more to our vets than meets the eye

Answer 2

My hubby is a Veteran of OIF
He's currently deployed on his 2nd tour

Answer 3

My father is over 80 and is a veteran of WWII.

Answer 4

I am a veteran, but not sure what number it is on :-)

The U.S. Census Bureau offers the following facts about U.S. veterans in 2005:

24.5 million The number of military veterans in the United States.

1.7 million The number of veterans who are women.

9.5 million The number of veterans who are age 65 or older.

2.3 million The number of black veterans.

Additionally, 1.1 million veterans are Hispanic; 276,000 are Asian; 185,000 are American Indian or Alaska native; and 25,000 are native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander.
8.2 million The number of Vietnam-era veterans. More than 30 percent of all veterans served in Vietnam, the largest share of any period of service. The next largest share of wartime veterans, 3.9 million or fewer than 20 percent, served during World War II.

16% Percentage of Persian Gulf War veterans who are women. In contrast, women account for 5 percent of World War II vets, 3 percent of Vietnam vets and 2 percent of Korean War vets.

32,000 The number of veterans who served during both the Vietnam era and in the Gulf War.

In addition,

383,000 veterans served during both the Korean War and the Vietnam conflict.

107,000 served during three periods: World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam conflict.

376,000 served in World War II and the Korean War.

6 The number of states with 1 million or more veterans. These states are California (2.3 million), Florida (1.8 million), Texas (1.7 million), New York (1.2 million), Pennsylvania (1.1 million) and Ohio (1.1 million).

Answer 5

Too many, same as their are too many of our british brothers searching for home whilst lying in a far forgotten grave

Answer 6

Three

Answer 7

I am a veteran

Answer 8

Im one but just went back in reserves cause I missed it.
Semper Fi

Answer 9

Beginning from the Vietnam era to the present, a few million.

Answer 10

I am one