In this May 2020 photo, flags are placed at each gravesite at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery in Boise to honor veterans for Memorial Day. (Darwin Fan/Getty Images)
Memorial Day is a time to set aside our differences and join together in remembering and thanking those brave souls who gave their last full measure for their fellow Americans. They deserve that honor even for serving in what some thought to be an ill-advised conflict. Vietnam turned out to be such a war, but that cannot take away from the fact that the 58,220 service personnel who died in that war were answering the call of their country and doing it well.
On Memorial Day, we think of the almost 1,355,000 service personnel who have perished in the nation’s conflicts, starting with the 70,000 who died in the Revolutionary War. Since then, about 655,000 died on both sides of the Civil War. The death toll in World War I was 116,516, and 406,399 died in World War II. The vicious and almost forgotten Korean War saw 36,574 deaths. After Vietnam, 2,325 died in the War in Afghanistan and 4,492 in the Iraq War. May they all rest in peace…