United States casualties of war

Military casualties suffered by the United States of America in war or deployments:

Notes

a. Note_label|A|a|none Revolutionary War: All figures from the Revolutionary War are rounded estimates. Commonly cited casualty figures provided by the Department of Defense are 4,435 killed and 6,188 wounded, although the original government report that generated these numbers warned that the totals were incomplete and far too low. [Howard H. Peckham, ed., "The Toll of Independence: Engagements & Battle Casualties of the American Revolution" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), xii.] Nevertheless, the numbers are often repeated without this warning, such as on the United States Department of Veteran Affairs website. [ [http://www1.va.gov/opa/fact/amwars.asp Fact Sheet: America's Wars] , accessed December 2006.] In 1974, historian Howard Peckham and a team of researchers came up with a total of 6,824 killed in action and 8,445 wounded. Because of incomplete records, Peckham estimated that this new total number of killed in action was still about 1,000 too low. [Peckham, "Toll of Independence", 131.] Military historian John Shy subsequently estimated the total killed in action at 8,000, and argued that the number of wounded was probably far higher, about 25,000. [John Shy, "A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence" (revised edition, University of Michigan Press, 1990, ISBN 0-472-06431-2), 249–50.] The "other" deaths are primarily from disease, including prisoners who died on British prison ships.

b. Note_label|B|b|none Civil War: All Union casualty figures, and Confederate killed in action, from "The Oxford Companion to American Military History". Estimate of total Confederate dead from James M. McPherson, "Battle Cry of Freedom" (Oxford University Press, 1988), 854.

c. Note_label|C|c|none World War I figures include expeditions in North Russia and Siberia. See also World War I casualties

d. Note_label|D|d|none Korean War: Note the American Battle Monuments Commission datebase for the Korean Conflict reports that "The Department of Defense reports that 54,246 American service men and women lost their lives during the Korean War. This includes all losses world wide. Since the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. honors all U.S. Military who lost their lives during the War, we have tried to obtain the names of those who died in other areas besides Korea during the period June 27, 1950 to July 27, 1954, one year after the Korean Armistice...". After their retreat in 1950, dead Marines and soldiers were buried at a temporary gravesite near Hungnam, North Korea. During "Operation Glory" which occurred from July to November 1954 the dead of each side were exchanged; remains of 4,167 US soldiers/Marines were exchanged for 13,528 North Korean/Chinese dead. [ [http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/korea/op_glory.htm Korean War Exchange of Dead - Operation GLORY ] ] After "Operation Glory" 416 Korean War "unknowns" were buried in the Punchbowl Cemetery; {total 867 Korean War "unknowns" are at the "Punchbowl Cemetery"; of these 10 were disintered of whom 6 were identified}. According to report of June 24, 2008 at [ [http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/koreanwar/2008/20080624_Korea_Fact_Sheet.pdf] ]
*Number of remains total unacccounted for: 8,055
*Number of remains repatriated are: 489 of whom 100 are identifed

da. Note_label|Da|da|none Cold War - Korea and Vietnam and Middle East-additional US Casualites:
*North Korea {Cold War} 1959:1968-1969;1976;1984 killed 41; Wounded 5; 82 captured/released. [ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_border_incidents_involving_North_Korea] ]
*USS Liberty incident 1967 killed 34; Wounded 173
*Vietnam War prior to 1964-US Casualites were Laos-2 killed in 1954; and Vietnam 1946-1954 2 killed see [ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties] ] ;

e. Note_label|E|e|none Iraq War. See also Casualties of the conflict in Iraq since 2003. Sources: [ [http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/2007.06.html Forces: U.S. & Coalition/Casualties - Special Reports ] ] .

References

ee also

*Military history of the United States
*Dover test
*World War II casualties

External links

* [http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/other/stats/warcost.htm Louisiana State University's statistical summary of major American wars]
* [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/ Washington Post database of all U.S. service-member casualties]
* [http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/index.html CNN list of U.S. Casualties in Iraq since 2003.]
* [http://www.usnewslink.com/fallenwarriors.htm Complete list of U.S. Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003.]
* [http://www1.va.gov/opa/fact/amwars.asp Fact Sheet on American Wars] from the VA
* [http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/casualty/WCPRINCIPAL.pdf DoD historical death tolls]
* [http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstats.htm Twentieth Century Atlas - Death Tolls]
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties.htm Iraq Casualties]
* [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq56-1.htm Navy and Marine death tolls]
* [http://icasualties.org/oif/ Iraq and Afghanistan Casualty Count]
* [http://www.mcgavockcemetery.net The McGavock Confederate Cemetery at Franklin, TN]