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May 30, 1868 was the first official Decoration Day. The day was declared by General John A. Logan and observed at Arlington National Cemetery. Volunteers that day decorated the graves of more the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers.
During World War II, Decoration Day was expanded and renamed Memorial Day to honor all Americans who died in military service. The day became a national holiday in 1971.
Almost 500,000 military personnel died during the U.S. Civil War. About 1.1 million service members have died in all the wars combined.
If you know someone killed in any of our wars then every number is very personal to you. We know 90,220 of our service members died in Vietnam.
If one of those was your friend, sibling or child then that war has a face that is personal to you. Four thousand four hundred and twenty four died in Iraq. I’m not sure how many have died in Afghanistan but the last statistic I can find is 2,372 but I’m sure it’s several more now.