Interesting article on military for Memorial Day 2015:

[speeder]

I thought it was well written and balanced. Covers the whole "Thank you for your service" expression that has become so commonplace these days, (I've said it many times), and other aspects of military vs. civilian culture.

I was suprised to read that military persons make up the lowest percentage of total population ever in modern times. Less than .5% of population. I find it interesting that we seem to have a much higher rate of current or former military here on this board, including many of my favorite members. In my large extended family, I have three cousins who are career military, all pilots. Actually one is retired but is working as a private contractor in Afghanistan. His wife and kids worry about him at least as much as when he was active duty.

The article talks about multi-generational military families and tradition a lot. My aforementioned cousin was Navy and his dad was Navy, (but not career, he served in Korea war). Of 9 siblings, he was the only one who joined the military. My other two cousins who are career military are brothers, both pilots, one AF and one Army. Their dad died when they were very small and he was not career military, though he may have been drafted or enlisted, (not sure).

At any rate, Happy Memorial Day to all and a salute to all who chose to volunteer. Here is the article:

U.S. military and civilians are increasingly divided - LA Times

[Evans, Marv]

I would really like to see a return of the draft. It's only my opinion, but I think it served a lot of good as far as the general population is concerned. It provided learning opportunities, vocational opportunities, got people out of neighborhoods and situations they would have been stuck in, & lots of other things too numerous to list. It also served the purpose of making a portion of the general population able to relate to military service. Another thing it did was infuse the military with people from different cultural, educational, business, and work (or non work) backgrounds even though when we had the draft, the military didn't attempt to try taking advantage of them. Even though people grumbled about having to go, I don't think too many considered it a negative experience afterwards.