West Virginians remain proud of their patriotism and their historic willingness to enter harm's way when their nation calls. The state has consistently seen solid contingents from its population fight in armed conflicts going back to the Civil War.
But in a question to Rudy Giuliani during his recent presidential campaign stop in Morgantown, one reporter asserted that West Virginia led the nation in residents per-capita serving in the military.
And state officials are among those who have boasted that West Virginia leads the nation in veterans, per-capita.
The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Defense count 9,318 active duty military and 7,480 reservists as Mountain State residents. These numbers suggest that nine out of every 1,000 West Virginians are in the military.
Fourteen states have higher rates, with Alaska leading the nation with 59 per 1,000 residents.
West Virginia ranks 12th for active-duty military (Alaska is again 1st), and 20th for reservists (Hawaii is 1st).
(DoD figures also count the number of active duty personnel stationed in states: West Virginia has just 489, while California has more than 150,000.)
As for veterans, the 2000 Census counted 201,701 in West Virginia, or 11.15% of the population, ranking the state 10th. Maine had the greatest share, 154,590 for 12.13% of its population.
The American Community Survey estimated veteran populations last year, again ranking West Virginia 10th with 12.5 percent of its residents veterans. Alaska topped that survey, at 14.6% of its population.
27 September 2007
Today's Batch O' Facts: West Virginians In The Military
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3 comments:
I'd say the number is actually higher than that. There are a number of military personnel who are originally from here, but after beginning careers in the military, they establish another state as their legal 'home' for tax reasons (i.e. no state income tax). My daughter is a WV native but her legal residence is elsewhere due to tax reasons, so she never registers in any statistics as a West Virginian despite having lived here for 23+ years. If you could gather numbers on those born and raised in WV and now in the military, I think the final number would really surprise you.
That's an interesting question. In trying to find such a figure, I have tracked down numbers showing that nearly 1.23 million people born in West Virginia resided elsewhere in the U.S. during the 2000 Census.
Dang. Isn't it disgusting when the facts undercut our sentiment!
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