Veterans Day: America's wartime vets, by the numbers

A look at the number of Americans who have served in our nation's military since the end of World War I.

3. Operation Desert Shield/Storm

Melanie Stetson Freeman / The Christian Science Monitor / File
In this 1998 file photo, Soviet-made Iraqi tanks from the '91 Gulf War rust in a military graveyard on the outskirts of Kuwait City, Kuwait. Many tanks bear US soldiers' grafitti such as this one: 'Hi Mom.'

Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm(1990-91): America's first encounter with Iraq's Saddam Hussein involved 2.3 million military personnel, of whom 2.2 million are still present.

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