Today we honor the service of the nearly 24 million military veterans living in the U.S. As such, we thought we’d share with you some facts about these brave men and women courtesy of the Census Bureau.
•1.8 million veterans are women
•2.4 million are black, 1.1 million are Hispanic, 278,000 are Asian, 165,000 are American Indian or Alaska natives, 27,000 are native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders and 18.7 million are white.
•9.3 million are older than 65 and 1.9 million are younger than 35.
•2.9 million served in World War II, 3 million served in Korea, 7.9 million served in Vietnam, 5 million served in the Gulf War and 6.1 million served in peace time. Approximately 1 million of these veterans served in two or more of these conflicts.
Bonus: Veterans Day started 89 years ago as Armistice Day to recognize the first anniversary of the end of World War I, the war to end all wars. There is only one U.S. World War I veteran alive to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the armistice today, according to CNN. His name is Frank Buckles.
