What Percentage Of Americans Have Served In The Military?

MSgt Darren VanDerwilt - You are mostly likely correct.

Capt Lance Gallardo - I agree. My Father, my uncle, and both my brothers (along with myself of course) served in the Army. None of us were drafted. But my children chose not to follow the footsteps of others. Us veterans are becoming a dying breed.

I have tried to verify these numbers based on "what percentage of ALL citizens have EVER served in the military....starting in 1776 to the present time?" The answer is basically an educated guess, but when you consider ALL citizens from that time to now, the 2% figure seems more realistic. If you add up all the years that America has been involved in "any war" verses all years of "non war"; then factor in populations during all those time periods, the 2% figure seems fairly realistic. Consider this....of all peoples who have served in the military, how many of them have actually been involved in combat? My guess is "that number" is far less than the (2%) who have ever served! Many veterans serve during wartime and many serve during peacetime. During wartime, many vets are deployed to war zones but actually serve as support personnel and are not ever in direct conflict with the enemy. Don't mistake my meaning here....I respect any and all veterans and thank them for their service to our country, however, as a Vietnam veteran who was in the infantry and engaged the enemy in combat in the jungle, I realize that for every soldier in the field under fire, there are 10 times that amount in support units cooking our food, working on our equipment, working in hospitals and numerous other occupations to support our efforts. THEY ARE NO LESS IMPORTANT THAN THOSE WHO FIGHT THE BATTLES! They are certainly in harms way, and many have been wounded or killed by mortars etc. but they still did not engage the enemy directly. I respect all veterans but have a special place in my heart for those who have been under fire with the enemy! To me, it is a very elite club of veterans!

If you want to vote twice move to Chicago and vote Democrat. You can even be an illegal Alien. This here is a sanctuary city.

Good one !

The idea in that line of novels was actually taken from the Roman Empire - including the classification of "citizen" vs. "civilian".

A citizen could vote, run for office, etc; a civilian received the protections of being part of the Roman Empire, but couldn't have a voice in any State matters, because he'd never put his "skin in the game" towards protecting the State.... "or so I read...."

One man one vote is a prescription for mutual suicide as a nation.

MAJ John Birch - Sir, I'd like to hear your logic behind that - unless you're referring to "mob rule", also known as "true democracy"... if that's the case, I already agree with you there.