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

Veterans Day (US) and Remembrance Day (British Commonwealth) are observed on Nov. 11, the day in 1918 that an armistice ended hostilities in The Great War. Some 41 million Americans have served in the US military since 1775; 23 million of them are still alive, of whom 17 million served during a conflict.

Source: 2010 American Community Survey, Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs

1. Vietnam War

Kim Ki Sam/AP/File
US Marines of the 3rd Battallion, 4th Marines, crouch in the cover of a pagoda entrance as their patrol moves through a village along the Ben Hai river in the southern sector of the DMZ in South Vietnam, on May 22, 1967.

  • By Leigh Montgomery Monitor Librarian

Vietnam War(1964-75): Many of the 8.8 million who served in uniform were draftees; 7.6 million are alive today.

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