I went on a spring-day drive through rural Illinois and ended up in Ogle County’s Oregon, a farm town along the Rock River that is also the county seat. The north side of the courthouse square has a war memorial, with two slabs of granite engraved with the names of those who died in the wars of the last hundred years.
World War I: 29 dead
World War II: 108 dead
Korean War: 9 dead
Vietnam War: 22 dead
Iraq and Afghan War: 6 dead
They are only names to me: Patrick Manning, Leon Rucker, George Roose, Donald Kretsinger, Justus Bartlett, and 169 others.
Oregon’s population is about 3,600. The whole of Ogle County is about 52,000. In the United States, there are 3,144 counties.