One at a time
Seen from a distance, the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington, D.C., looks like two shiny sheets of black angled against each other.
Get a little closer, and that's when you see the names — 58,229 of them, to be exact.
That's 38,505 killed in "hostile" action. Five thousand two hundred and forty-two killed by wounds resulting from hostile action. Seven thousand four hundred and fifty-five dying in nonhostile situations.
Of those individuals, 38,196 were a member of the United States Army, and 14,837 were a part of the Marines.
Approximately 1,300 of them are officially listed as MIA or POW — missing in action or prisoner of war.
That's an awful lot of numbers to digest. And when you think of them as numbers, it doesn't really register. Like looking at "The Wall" from a distance, you don't see the names anymore, just a shiny black surface.
Step up next to that wall and focus on one name. That's when it hits home.
One person at a time is what it takes to keep America safe.
One soldier hunkered down in a foxhole during the Battle of the Bulge. One soldier pushing through the hot jungles of Vietnam. One soldier enduring the sandstorms of Kuwait.
It's easy to think of the military in numbers, but the reality of what these men and women do every day doesn't register until we start thinking of them as individuals with friends and family who love them.
This July 4th, don't just thank the United States military for guarding this country's borders and protecting its freedoms.
Thank one soldier at a time.
— JENNIFER WILSON
