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Dignity Memorial, operator of Hamblen Memory Gardens, provided space for a tombstone commemorating the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1073 for its work in honoring veterans.

Historian and Citizen Tribune columnist Jim Claborn spoke during the dedication Wednesday afternoon.

“If you were born in 1943, you don’t remember World War II, they would be a year and a half or two years old,” he said. “At seven years old, the Korean War started. 54,000 people died in that war. It’s an almost forgotten war because it was right after World War II when 400,000 of our best young people had to die.”

Claborn said that during World War II, there were 150 million to 160 million people in the United States.

That 80-year-old person saw the first televisions where the outside antennas had to be turned to pick up stations. They also saw jet planes fly faster than a conversation and the first computers.

“At age 20, they saw the Vietnam War start up,” Claborn said. “That war was going to cost way more and last way longer than the other wars. (There were) 90,000 people who died in Vietnam.”

Claborn discussed other wars since Vietnam. Another 6,000 people died in Iraq and Desert Storm, he said.

“Right now, young folks between 17 and 24 years old, only 23 out of 100 can qualify to be in the military,” Claborn said.

Claborn also traced a person who died in 1943 at age 80 of what that person saw during their lifetime.

“That 80-year-old person was alive during the Civil War,” he said. “In the Civil War, we lost half as many people in the whole rest of the wars. Of the population of the U.S. during that time, most of them had somebody who had given their lives for their country, whichever side they chose.”

Next, Claborn traced one who was born in 1863, while the Civil War was raging.

“Half a million people died in a nation of 70 or 80 million,” he said. “That was a big slice of the best people out of that population.”

The Spanish-American War came along when that person was around 30 years old. Around 2,500 soldiers died during that war.

World War I was like the Korean War in that the U.S. was fighting like in the 1800s when troops lined up and charged against 20th century weapons, Claborn said.

“World War I was just a mass slaughter,” he said. “In those days, troops would be in a trench, a whistle would blow, and then the troops would march across barbed wire.”

That 80-year-old, who was born in 1863, lived to see the start of World War II.

Finally, Claborn discussed what a person born in 1783 saw in their 80 years until their death in 1863.

“In 1783, we just whooped the strongest country in the world (Great Britain),” Claborn said. “It cost us 4,400 people. Keep in mind, we had 13 colonies and our population was way smaller.

“The war made a big cut out of our population back then. It’s incredible how many gravestones you can still see from the Revolutionary War here in this tiny county, the third smallest in land mass in Tennessee. The U.S. couldn’t pay a pension, so they gave them land and they moved here.”

After the Revolutionary War, Britain began the War of 1812, which resulted in 2,000 lives lost. The Mexican War in the 1830s, resulted in gaining Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

Claborn has written 1,200 stories and penned two books in 34 years of writing. Five hundred of those stories have been about veterans. He wants to record as much as he can because he had two grandparents that he didn’t say 500 words to.

“They just didn’t talk to young folks,” he said. “I’d like to leave some of what you experienced and endured behind so that a grandchild or great-grandchild will know about their grandparents. That’s just my goal.”

Claborn said that veterans make up less than one percent of the population today.

“When we’re that small number and we get out with regular folks, a lot of them don’t have the awareness of what you all endured for them to pay attention like they should,” Claborn said. “We have a lot of supporters. Men and women during that war are affected differently.”

According to Claborn, there are 65 living Medal of Honor recipients, one Korean War Medal of Honor recipient and 48 Vietnam War Metal of Honor recipients left in the area. Claborn estimates he has met around 30 Medal of Honor recipients.

There are four Medal of Honor recipients serving in the military.

“After talking to 500 veterans, the process for a Medal of Honor has to go through such a process that only one out 10 people who earned it got it. That one who is left represents all of those that got their metal or didn’t get it,” he said.

“Somebody who is born today will be 80 years old in 2103,” Claborn said. “I’ve got a big feeling that a lot of us really love this country. I’ve got another big feeling that a lot of us will really work to see that person born today who will live into 2103 is going to have the same blessings and the same opportunities that we got.”