DATE: Monday, May 26, 1997                  TAG: 9705230002

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   62 lines

LEGIONS OF THE DEAD A DAY TO REMEMBER ALL WHO HAVE DIED IN THE SERVICE OF THIS GREAT LAND.

How many Americans have perished in America's wars? The count of ``battle deaths'' and ``other deaths'' is imprecise, despite the best efforts of historians and statisticians in and out of government to produce an accurate tally.

Among the 185,000 to 250,000 men who fought for American independence in the Revolutionary War (1775-83), 6,824 reportedly died during or after battles and 18,500 were killed by diseases and in accidents.

There were 2,265 ``battle deaths,'' but no ``other deaths,'' recorded among the 286,730 (that statistic was reported by the Commissioner of Pensions in 1903) soldiers, sailors and Marines who served in the War of 1812 (which didn't end until 1815).

The Mexican War (1846-48) exacted more lives than its immediate predecessor: Of 78,718 men who marched, rode or sailed off to that conflict, 1,733 perished in battle, 11,550 were felled by other causes.

The biggest bloodletting was the Civil War (1861-65), which claimed the lives of 2 percent of the populace. That would be equivalent to 5 million deaths today. Back then, the battle-death toll among Union personnel was 140,414; the other-death toll, 224,097. Fewer Confederates perished. Battle deaths totaled 74,524; other deaths, 59,297.

The Civil War's carnage inspired the first Memorial Day - Decoration Day, as it was called at the outset. The custom of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers had spread to many communities South and North before the first formal observance of Decoration Day in the Northern states on May 30, 1868. Southern states tended to honor their dead on a day other than May 30. Not until 1971, did Memorial Day become a federal holiday.

Between 1868 and 1971, Americans had fought four other wars - Spanish-American (1898), World War I (1917-18 was the period of U.S. participation), World War II (America was drawn in by Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941; the war was officially closed out on Dec. 31, 1946), the Korean War (1950-1953) - and were engaged in a fifth, in Vietnam.

Battle deaths in the Spanish-American War were 385; other, 2,061. World War I, 53,513 and 63,195. World War II, 292,131 and 115,185; Korean War, 33,629 and 20,617; Vietnam, 47,356 and 10,795 (the preliminary reckoning on Jan. 27, 1973, the cease-fire date). The Vietnam toll extends slowly as the fate of missing-in-action personnel is determined.

The long list of America's war dead excludes tens of thousands who perished during peacetime maneuvers. The machines and weapons of war are fraught with perils. Personnel are sucked into jet engines, killed in aircraft, crushed by tanks and armored personnel carriers, blown up by ordnance, drowned at sea.

This day is set aside to remember all who have died in the service of this great land, in combat necessary and unnecessary, from the Wild West to the Persian Gulf, and in the Philippines, Nicaragua, Panama, Grenada, Beirut, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia. . . .

Today Americans will gather at Arlington National Cemetery and other military cemeteries, and at the wall recording the names of Americans who died in Vietnam. Most of us will be elsewhere. The summer-vacation season ``officially'' opens on Memorial Day weekend. The beach calls, and there are sales in the stores.

But as we celebrate life on this day, it is especially fitting to remember the millions who shed their blood for America, and the many thousands among us bearing war wounds. Respectful remembrance is their due. And gratitude. They bought our freedom with their sacrifice.

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