Uncle Sam Still Wants You

June 6, 1944, eighty years ago, 150,000 brave young men stormed France to put an end to one of the most horrific regimes in history, Nazi Germany. If you go to Bedford Virginia, you will see the results of years of effort by Carol Tuckwiller, who determined that 2,501 of the 4,414 allied soldiers, sailors, coast guardsmen, and airmen who died on D-Day were Americans. During the war, more than 400,000 service members died and, on D-Day alone, more than 5,000 Americans were wounded. 

They fought for America because they could see clearly that the alternatives offered by the enemy, Germany, Japan, and Italy, were terrible. The young men who charged into German machine guns on those French beaches were fighting for something they believed in—America. 

Today, it has all changed. Amongst those 18-34 only 18% say that are very or extremely proud to be Americans. Just ten years ago, that figure was 85%. It’s not surprising that military recruiting is suffering.

Read the full piece on my Substack here.