By one measurement, the answer would have to be that they are.

The residential patterns for current veterans and the patterns of state-level contributions of new recruits to the all-volunteer military have a distinct geographic tilt. And tellingly, the map of military service since 1973 aligns closely with electoral maps distinguishing red from blue states.

In 1969, the 10 states with the highest percentage of veterans were, in order: Wyoming, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, California, Oregon, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio, Connecticut and Illinois.

In 2007, the 10 states with the highest percentage of post-Vietnam-era veterans were, in order: Alaska, Virginia, Hawaii, Washington, Wyoming, Maine, South Carolina, Montana, Maryland and Georgia.

Over the past four decades, which states have disappeared from the top 10? California, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois, all big blue states that have voted Democratic in the past five presidential elections. These states and another blue state, New York, which ranked 12th in 1969, are among the 10 states with the lowest number of post-Vietnam vets per capita. New Jersey comes in 50th of the 50 states; just 1 percent of current residents have served in the military since Vietnam.

Now IÂ’ll be the first to concede that there are any number of ways to interpret those statistics, as well as a host of reasons for them. And IÂ’ll also concede that military service and love of country are not the same thing. But it does show a certain cultural divide that exists in this country that runs deeper than mere voting patterns. After all, we heard statements time and again about who was serving in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Turns out that it was the people of the states who were voting in support of those conflicts by voting in support of the GOP.

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Nearly seven decades after his death at the hands of the Japanese during their opening salvo against AmericaÂ’s armed forces.

Early on the morning of Dec. 8, 1941, nine Japanese fighter planes swooped down on Malalag Bay in the Philippines and strafed and sunk two U.S. Navy seaplanes at the very outset of World War II.
All of the Americans escaped unharmed except Ensign Robert G. Tills, 23, of Manitowoc, Wis., who was cut down by machine gun bullets.
"Ensign Robert Tills died in the fusillade of bullets from the Japanese strafers, the first American naval officer killed in the defense of the Philippines," the Naval Historical Center wrote.

Ensign Tills died during one of the many near-simultaneous sneak attacks upon American military bases in the Pacific on December 7/December 8, 1941. His body was not recovered – until recently. His sole surviving relative is his sister, who was eleven years old when her brother died, and will bury him at Arlington National Cemetary, with full military honors.

May God grant Ensign Tills eternal rest, and may the nation for which he gave his life always rmember his sacrifice.

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