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Article: Winged warriors: a tribute to military aviators.(aviation casualties in US Armed Forces since 1917)
- Article from:
- VFW Magazine
- Article date:
- November 1, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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America's air services--Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard--have played an instrumental role in the nation's defense starting with World War I. But far too often, the focus has been on the machine instead of the man. So while countless words celebrate the centennial of flight on Dec. 17, we at VFW pay tribute to those aircrew members who sacrificed their lives using aircraft as a means of protecting their country.
The accompanying chart tallies only the nearly 64,000 warriors of the skies who were killed as a result of enemy action since 1917. But in intent these two pages commemorate all air service members--fixed-wing and helicopter--who died ...