- 2,894
- 387
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2003
The youngest possible WW2 veteran would be 80 years old right now... and this is only if the veteran was 15 or 16 years old during the last year of the war. The median age right now is floating around 86.
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[h2]Number of U.S. Veterans[/h2]
16,112,566 Americans were members of the United States armed forces during World War II.There were 291,557 battle deaths, 113,842 other deaths in service(non-theater), and 671,846 non-mortal woundings. As of September 30,2009, there were approximately 2,024,000 American veterans still living.[sup][1][/sup]
[h2][edit] Mortality[/h2]
Approximately 900 American World War II veterans die every day.[sup][2][/sup] The median age for a World War II veteran in February 2007 was 84 years.[sup][3][/sup]
My 86-year-old grandfather served in the Philippines on a Naval boat. I had a great-uncle (rip) who was a sniper in that area as well. Their stories are crazy...
It's just sad that they won't be around much longer. As it said above, 900 WW2 vets die per day. Pretty soon there won't be anyone around to tell the stories.
The main thing I take away from my grandpa's stories is that almost everyone WANTED to be there. It was considered your duty and manly and macho to sign up and go fight the Axis of Evil. There hasn't been another war since then with anywhere near that amount of motivation or voluntary soldiers.
Anyone got any cool stories? Or know any vets?