800-901-1102Veterans Day is celebrated to give honor and remembrance to those that are or have served in our military. No matter what war, police action, government sanctioned “occupation” or humanitarian projects w
ere or are being performed, our armed services have employed the best of our best. Through the years, these men and women have braved, clubs, arrows, knives, musket and cannon balls, bullets, rockets, chemical and biological warfare, hunger, thirst, heat, cold, insects and the diseases they carry to secure the” Freedoms” of our country and those of others as well.
Since the beginning of our country, an on-going war against disease and disease carrying insects has been waged by our military.
More active military service days have been lost to diseases—many of them transmitted by insects—than to combat. In the Korean War, Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War, disease casualties (caused mostly by insect bites) outnumbered combat casualties.
The insect-borne diseases most often encountered by U.S. overseas troops are malaria, scrub typhus, leishmaniasis, and Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever. Three tick-borne diseases—Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Colorado tick fever—are often encountered by U.S. military personnel in the United States during stateside training exercises.
So while we recognize the valor and heroism inherent in our soldiers, remember that they are or have volunteered to selflessly give up their lives (in many different ways) for the freedoms enjoyed by you and me, today.
It’s hard to believe more troops have died from insect transmitted diseases in many battles than from combat. This link goes to facts about our Civil War and how two thirds of the soldiers died from disease. The number two killer was typhoid from body lice.
http://www.civilwar.org/education/pdfs/civil-was-curriculum-medicine.pdf
It was good to learn that we have insect killing impregnated battle-dress uniforms in place for our women and men defending us.