Who Are the Veterans In Your Life?

We asked Patch’s Facebook followers to tell us the veterans they want to honor on Veterans Day 2013.  Following are some of the comments from Patch Facebook pages.  You can follow the links to specific pages to more veterans in town and you can honor the veterans in you life by adding their names in the comments section or posting their picture in the announcements.

San Ramon resident Sarah Tully wanted to honor Al Gonsalves.  She wrote, “he just passed on Halloween.
Was a wonderful coach and friend to many San Ramon soccer and softball teams and their families. R.I.P. Al”

Sharon Hoffman from Pleasanton had a comprehensive list of family members who’d served from World War II to Iraq.  Here’s the list: Al Plank, Mariposa, WWll Navy
Luis Bosque - Livermore WWll Army
Emiliano Begornia - Watsonville, WWll Navy
Joseph Hoffmann, Occidental WWll Merchant Marine
Ben Escobar, Livermore, Viet Nam Army
Jerry Bosque, Viet Nam Army
Adrian Durham, Iraq Air force

Among the many vets listed by Livermore residents was this from Michael McClung, “Michael McClung Sr, Vietnam, Major Megan McClung, KIA, Iraq.”

Here are a few facts and figures about Veterans Day.

Veterans Day honors the service of United States military veterans. It's celebrated every year on Nov. 11, and coincides with Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world.

These holidays mark the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that brought forth the temporary cessation of hostilities during World War I. The armistice was signed at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of November in 1918. World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

·       There were 21.5 million military veterans in the United States in 2011. Of that number, 1.6 million were female veterans.

·       Breakdown of U.S. veterans by race in 2011: 2.3 million black; 1.2 million Hispanic; 264,695 Asian; 153,223 American Indian or Alaska Native; 27,469 Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and 17.2 million non-Hispanic white.

·       There were 9.2 million U.S. veterans in 2011 who were 65 and older, and 1.8 million who were younger than 35.

·       The states with 1 million or more U.S. veterans in 2011 were California (1.9 million), Florida (1.6 million) and Texas (1.6 million).

·       The percent of U.S. veterans 25 and older with at least a bachelor's degree in 2011 was 26.3 percent. In comparison, 28.5 percent of the total population had a bachelor's degree or higher.

·       The percent of U.S. veterans 25 and older with a high school diploma or higher in 2011 was 92.3 percent, compared with 86 percent of the population as a whole.

·       There were 9.1 million U.S. veterans 18 to 64 in the labor force in 2011.

While Veterans Day celebrates all U.S. military veterans, Memorial Day, held the last Monday of May each year, remembers those who died while serving in the nation's armed forces.