About 12% were actually on duty, but not necessarily quite all of them at the same time. That 16.5 million is the total number who served, not the number at any one time. Still when you consider all the people working in the armaments factories, you probably do get to 1/3, maybe even higher. My Dad, and both blood uncles were in that active duty component. (the paternal uncle was sunk in the Greenland Sea by a U-boat in November of '42, while serving as Naval Armed Guard aboard the Liberty Ship George Rodgers Clark. He got off with *only* the loss a couple of toes to frostbite. My Mom, even though she was in high school for much of the war, was also one of those defense plant workers. When she first graduated from high school, at 16, she worked as an elevator operator, non defense, but then shifted to the Stop-Nut (sp?) company, which made fuses, and continued to do so up through the late 50s or early 60s, but then it was part of Timex. My aunt worked there then, she also worked at an Army Ammunition plant, helping to pour liquid explosive material (liquid because it was HOT) into bomb casings, but that was during Vietname, when she was a middle aged lady.
Dad and both Uncles are gone now, although the maternal uncle only died last year. Aunt is gone too. Oldest Aunt, and my Mom, the baby of the family, are still with us. I'll call her tomorrow so she can be told Happy Mothers Day by her great granddaughter, who right now is asleep in MY BED!
I was remiss not looking up the numbers since the mid 1970s and appreciate the update. If one really rolls in the patriotic against the cowards, hard-core communists and Nazi sympathizers I dare say 90% of our citizens sacrificed a great deal for the overall war effort, ESPECIALLY those who put stars in their windows. Note how many Hollywood actors and athletes put their careers on hold to serve. We don’t see anything like that these days nor expect to see it from people who have staffs telling them that the universe revolves around them.
Yet I am still rather shocked to see how large the fifth column was then at a time when they were most unpopular. Now that column has grown to dominate most of the media and controls most of of the information of people who don’t know to look outside their propaganda feeds. They dominate our schools, are rife in our religious institutions and are all over the government at all levels.
Happy Mother’s Day to the great ladies you have and I envy you that you have them to honor. While Mother’s Day was originally a scheme to sell flowers and cards mothers deserve this day regardless, or despite, corporate intentions. I like to think it transcended to what it should be.