Honoring All Who Served

Honoring All Who Served. . , The Heartland Veterans Memorial at Central City was constructed to recognize the five military service branches: provide educational information concerning significant historical conflicts; and to honor all military veterans who served in the past, present and future. A military veteran is any person who served for any length of time in any military service branch. A war veteran is any soldier, sailor, airman or marine ordered to foreign soil or waters to participate in direct or support activity against an enemy. A combat veteran is any serviceman or woman who experiences any level of hostility for any duration resulting from offensive, defensive or friendly fire military action involving a real or perceived enemy in any foreign theater. , The Heartland Veterans Memorial recognizes all veterans, whether in declared war/conflict or not. Since the United States was founded in 1776, we have been at war in over 200 years of our existence. Pick any year since 1776 and there is about a 91 percent chance that America was involved in some war or conflict during that calendar year. If covert CIA operations and other acts were considered, the percentage increases to 93 percent. The U.S. has never gone a decade without a war. The congressional Research Service recorded 330 notable deployments of U.S. military forces over seas since 1798. , In addition, the deployments do not include limited military engagements such as blockades, humanitarian airdrops, rescue operations, raids and drone strikes. The military of the U.S. is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world. The total number of U.S. troops world wide in November 2015 was 1,145,093. The total does not include any military or civilian contractors or dependents. Of course, the total changes as need dictates. , Since the American Revolutionary War, which began in 1775 (1775-1783), all conflicts led to 2,852,901 total American casualties. Of this amount, 1,498,237 were wounded. Of the 1,354,664 American deaths, 664,440 were from combat. world war two resulted in 44 percent of the combat deaths; the Civil War caused 32 percent, Vietnam stood at 7 percent, and Korean War at 5 percent. The number of Americans reported as "missing" is 40,917. Statistics are as of January, 2016. , The Heartland Veterans Memorial monuments and panels document significant declared wars and conflicts. However, as noted earlier, veterans serve America daily in deployments, operations, safekeeping and training. The statistics of American casualties typically include only those from war or conflicts. Soldiers of our military can become casualties from training, traffic accidents and normal operations. The guarding of American embassies, aggression by hostile nations, terrorism and covert actions also create veteran casualties. A few of these incidents are documented on this monument. , We recognize and honor the American military and its Veterans. , Berlin Airlift , Berlin was blockaded by the Soviet Union on June 24, 1948 to May 12, 1949. The Soviet Union blockaded all rail, road and canal access to sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies would withdraw the newly introduced Deutsche mark from West Berlin. This was the first major international crises of the Cold War. , The Western allies organized the Berlin airlift (June 26, 1948 to Sept 30, 1949) to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin. Aircrews from the Western Allies organized to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin. The Allied Air Forces flew 277,806 flights involving 300 aircraft, providing 2.34 million tons of food, coal, fuel and other vital supplies for Berlin's 2.2 million inhabitants. On May 12, 1949 the Soviets lifted the blockade of West Berlin. Some 78 people lost their lives during the airlift , 31 Americans, 39 Britons and 8 Germans. The Berlin Blockade served to highlight the competing ideological and economic visions for post war Europe. , American U-2 Spy Plane Shot Down May 2, 1960 , A U-2 flight at 70,000 feet altitude piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down while on a spy mission over Russia. The United States denied that the plane was there but in one of the most dramatic moments of the Cold War Nikita Khrushchev produced a mostly intact American U-2 spy plane and very much alive pilot. The pilot was held by the Russians until a 1962 exchange for a captured Soviet spy. , Cuban Missile Crisis October 1962 , During the Cuban Missile Crisis leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13 day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear armed Soviet missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. In a TV address on October 22, 1962 President John Kennedy notified Americans about the presence of the missiles. He then explained his decision to enact a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force, if necessary, to neutralize this perceived threat to national security. Following this news many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war. However, disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba and to remove nuclear missiles from Turkey. , USS Pueblo Incident Jan. 23, 1968 , The USS Pueblo was built in 1944 as an Army cargo ship. In 1966, it was refitted and attached to Navy intelligence as a spy ship. The ship was attacked and captured by North Korean forces on January 23, 1968. The attack came from two sub-chaser ships, four torpedo boats and two MIG-21 fighter planes. One USS Pueblo crewman was killed and several wounded before the ship surrendered. The remaining 82 crew members were taken prisoner and endured eleven months of abuse and torture until being released. The USS Pueblo is still held by North Korea. U.S. reports identified that the ship was in international waters. , The Beirut Barracks Bombings Incident Oct. 23, 1983 , The Beirut Barracks Bombing were attacks that occurred in Beirut, Lebanon, during the Lebanese Civil War when two trucks with bombs struck separate buildings housing Multinational Forces. Specifically targeting United States and French service members, killing 241 U.S. and 58 French peacekeepers, and 6 civilians. It is believed that Hezbollah ordered the attack. In 2017 US Vice President Mike Pence called the bombing “the opening salvo in the war that we have waged ever since." , The Global War on Terror.