A touch of blue

Sipping a coffee out here, a bit blue construction paper upper right, that would be a neat little project for the wall. Was thinking I should take a ride to town just to see how many know of Custom and Tradition.

Raised full staff, then lowered to half-staff till noon, to Honor those who died in battle, then full-staff for the remaining of the day to honor our living Brothers & Sisters.

By the numbers

breakdown of when and where they died, as of May 27, starting with the American Revolution:

American Revolution (1775-1783) Battle Deaths: 4,435

War of 1812 (1812-1815)Battle Deaths: 2,260

Indian Wars (approx. 1817-1898) Battle Deaths (VA estimate): 1,000

Mexican War (1846-1848) Battle Deaths: 1,733

Other Deaths (In Theater): 11,550

Civil War (1861-1865) Battle Deaths (Union): 140,414

Other Deaths (In Theater)(Union): 224,097 Battle Deaths (Confederate): 74,524 Other Deaths (In Theater)(Confederate): 59,297

Spanish-American War (1898-1902) Battle Deaths: 385

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 2,061

World War I (1917-1918) Battle Deaths: 53,402

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 63,114

World War II (1941 –1945) Battle Deaths: 291,557

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 113,842

Korean War (1950-1953)Battle Deaths: 33,739 Other Deaths (In Theater): 2,835

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 17,672

Vietnam War (1964-1975) Battle Deaths: 47,434 Other Deaths (In Theater): 10,786

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 32,000

(These cover period 11/1/55 to 5/15/75)

Desert Shield/Desert Storm (1990-1991) Battle Deaths: 148 Other Deaths (In Theater): 235 Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 1,565

Global War on Terror, including Iraq and Afghanistan (Oct 2001 – present) Total Deaths: 6,888.

In addition to those, the State Department Office of the Historian lists the Philippine-American War, 1899 to 1902, citing the deaths of more than 4,200 U.S. combatants.

Suicides from PTSD should have been added to their numbers, survive the battle only to come home and lose the war.

Wasn’t fast enough, lucky timing or something else, Mr. Eagle was out front sounded like this when the flag was being lowered.