The 60s Were About More Than Vitenam
Thankfully the Vietnam War was the last conflict to cost as many lives as it did. 47,423 service personnel died there. 211,455 were wounded and 1,602 were listed as missing. However, it should not be forgotten that one American (USAF Major Rudolf Anderson) was killed in combat and another 18 crew members were lost to operational accidents during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cold War would claim many more lives- perhaps the most overlooked of all those lost during their service to the country.
Undeclared Wars and Their Costs
When the intelligence gathering ship USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was inexplicably attacked by Israel in 1967, 34 of her crew were killed and 171 wounded. When the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut was bombed in 1983, 241 US military peacekeepers were killed. During the Persian Gulf “Tanker War” the guided missile frigate USS Stark (FFG-31) was hit by an Exocet air-to-surface missile resulting in 39 crew members dead and 31 wounded. Operation Urgent Fury cost the lives of another 18 service members on the island of Grenada.
Lives Cut Short During Operations Count Too
Operation Eldorado Canyon. Desert Shield. Desert Storm. Somalia. Afghanistan. Iraq, Iraq again. Operation Inherent Resolve. All have cost American lives- many of them known to us, our families, or our friends simply because we were directly affected by those lives. Those who gave their lives for their country more recently are no less worthy of our respect and remembrance than those who died at Bunker Hill, Belleau Wood, on the Arizona, turned the tide at Midway, fought kamikazes at Okinawa, stalked the dreaded German U-boats in the Atlantic, stormed the beaches at Normandy, died on the coral reefs at Tarawa or the volcanic cinders on Iwo Jima, struggled for Heartbreak Ridge, tangled with MiGs, withstood the siege at Khe Sanh, The Outpost, or thousands of other nameless but no less important places.
Remember Them All, For They All Earned It
During the ill-fated Iran hostage rescue attempt (Operation Eagle Claw), eight servicemen were killed at the Desert One rendezvous. Of the 16,000 submariners who crewed the Fleet Boats that took the fight back to Japan, 375 officers and 3,132 men are still on patrol. 15 American aircraft were shot down by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Memorial Day is about the crews. John J. Williams. Henry Gunther. The five Sullivan brothers. George A. Davis. Pat Tillman. Michael P. Murphy. Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge. Karl Richter. Jesse L. Brown. John Walmsley. Charley Havlat. Anthony J. Marchione. Remember them all and all the rest. Heroes and regular Joes. You can be sure their brothers and sisters in arms remember them.
