ShareThisAn editorial / By Dale McFeatters
Monday, November 13, 2006
John Kerry didn't mean to say that if you're too lazy or dim to stay in school you wind up in the military in Iraq but that's the way his ill-considered jest came out. But the resulting furor demonstrated in heartening fashion how protective Americans are of their armed forces and the respected place military service has in our society.
And the public scolding Kerry took could have been much worse except for something else about our society: Kerry is a decorated veteran and the people berating him for the most part were not veterans of any kind.
Going back to George Washington's ragged little army, there is a long tradition of service in this country and thus it is that we honor this Veterans Day those who have served in that tradition. And there are a lot of them, currently about 25 million, according to the Census bureau, including 80,000 who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
The ranks of veterans cover all the races and ethnicities of our society and a growing number, now over 1.7 million are women. And, just to lay the Kerry thing to rest, they are by and large well-educated, 25 percent with a bachelor's degree or better and almost 90 percent with a high school diploma.
Ours is, and always has been, a citizens' army. We do not have a warrior or officer class. Even in the all-volunteer military, most plan to go on and do something else.
With wars in progress in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is poignant to recall that this holiday was originally to mark the 1918 armistice that ended the War to End All Wars. That the war was eventually awarded a numeral _ World War I _ is sad testament to the fact that it did not.
Our World War I military stood at 4.7 million strong. Their number has now been reduced to a dozen. The ranks of World War II veterans are fast dwindling. But the number of Iraq and Afghan war veterans is now over 1 million. Thus does one generation give way to the next and to the next in a history of honorable service.
And for that we salute them this Veterans Day.
