“You comment about 2 out of 25 led me to believe it was a rhetorical question: What % of Americans actually serve?”
as of April 2007 .96% out of ~ 300,000,000 US Population was serving in the military...That is less than 1% of our population and it also includes foreigners serving in the military..
In WWII with a population of around 150M almost 16 million served and that was over 10% or our population..
Source: Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_United_States
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_Americans_fought_in_World_War_2
see my post #363.
While 1% are currently serving, 10% of each year’s eligible group of males ends up serving. That would suggest that 10% or more of the nation’s males are veterans.
My experience says that’s true.