(commemorated Memorial Day May 31)
On this Memorial Day as we remember both those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and those who have served, it is appropriate to look back in history.
Eighty years ago the United States was about to be thrown into the terrible cauldron that was World War II. Since the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939, the United States had maintained a neutral stance towards the war in Europe. However, we were, in fact, supplying Britain and Russia with needed materials to fight the Nazi menace, and beginning in September 1941, the American Navy helped escort merchant ships across the Atlantic. In the Pacific, there were continued war rumblings as Japan sought to expand its empire in the quest for a constant supply of needed raw materials.
The United States in the spring of 1941 was still ill prepared for engaging in a world wide military conflict. Following World War I the size of the American military was drastically reduced. As the world slipped into depression, the forces were reduced even further. By 1936 the Regular Army had been reduced to 110,000 with roughly 225,000 National Guard. Budget expenditures were cut drastically. The size of the Navy had also been greatly limited by budget constraints and international treaties that dictated minimal navy ship construction. In short the United States had only the seventeenth largest military in the world, smaller than that of Portugal.
By late 1940, with American military involvement looming, The United States had instituted a draft and our industrial might was slowly awakening. Also by December 1941 America's armed forces had grown to nearly 2.2 million soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. However, the country still largely had an isolationist perspective whose proponents hoped we could avoid “foreign entanglements.” December 7th, 1941 changed all of that. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor propelled the United States into a horrific worldwide conflict that for us lasted almost four long years.
In the European theater, the Allies drove through North Africa, battled up the boot of Italy, and landed in France on D-Day while the Russians fought on the Eastern Front. In the Pacific, American forces island hopped towards Japan while MacArthur’s forces liberated the Philippines.
By the end of the war in 1945, an astounding 16,000,000 American men and women served as soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen. This number included my grandfather, father, father-in-law and two uncles; who served in both the Pacific and European theaters. Because of the huge amount of war materials produced by our industrial base, the United States was aptly known as “The Arsenal of Democracy.” This response to Japanese and German aggression came at a great price. The human cost of war dwarfs other statistics. In World War II an estimated 75 million people perished. 3% of the world population at that time. The war in the Pacific and in the Western theater claimed nearly 406,000 U.S. military deaths. Lives lost on land, sea and in the air. American treasure spilled to ensure that the tenets of our liberties would not soon be extinguished.
We honor those, who throughout our history, have been willing to vigorously defend democratic concepts that too much of the world ignores or actively seeks to suppress. Even in our country today, there are those who would choke off those precious rights in our Constitution that were bought by the blood of patriots. No nation, founded on principles of equality, justice and individual rights, can long survive a sustained attack on its core principles whether from without or within. This Memorial Day we look back to those whose lives were given for the greatest good. We look forward to those willing to sustain the fragile flame of freedom regardless of the cost. May God continue to bless the United States of America.