Today, this Veterans Day, we celebrate and thank the nearly 20 million military who have fought for and protected the United States of America all over the world.

Declared a holiday by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, it was originally established to commemorate the end of World War I and initially coined “Armistice Day”. It wasn’t officially referred to as “Veterans Day” until 1954, under former Army general and then-POTUS Dwight Eisenhower.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2014, there were 19.3 million veterans living in the United States.

Still today, America has proudly within its secure borders 36,396 veterans who each served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

While Memorial Day is set aside every year to honor those veterans who have fallen, let us take a moment on this day too, and remember all those who have lost their lives protecting the red, white and blue.

02-total-deaths

war time deaths