5-26-2024 11:31pm

Memorial Day 2024, Remembering New Mexico’s Fallen by the Numbers

Chris Edwards Editor

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. This Memorial Day 2024 we should remember the fallen soldiers of New Mexico.

The tradition of Memorial Day remembrance dates to before New Mexico was even a state. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unfortunately, Alamogordo no longer holds a Memorial Day Parade of remembrance.

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.

Waterloo—which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

Remembering New Mexico’s fallen war heroes by the numbers…

The numbers by the end of the First World War of New Mexico soldiers ranked fifth in the nation for military service, enlisting more than 17,000 recruits from all 33 New Mexican counties. The war claimed the lives of 501 New Mexicans. The global conflict ended with the signing of the armistice Nov. 11, 1918

More than 2,200 New Mexicans died in World War II, which is the highest proportion of fatalities among all U.S. states during the war. This was out of 49,579 New Mexicans who volunteered or were drafted into military service, which was the highest rate of service in the country at the time.

In 1942, the Japanese captured 900 New Mexican soldiers from the 200th Coast Artillery and 75,000 other prisoners of war, who were forced to walk 60 miles to a prison camp in the Philippines. Many soldiers died from exhaustion, dehydration, blisters, and being bayoneted to death. The walk known as the Bataan Death March claimed the lives of 16,950 American and Filipino soldiers. Over 900 New Mexicans from the 200th Coast Artillery died during the march, the greatest majority of those casualties from Otero County, New Mexico.

The Korean War resulted in the deaths of 215, New Mexicans.

The Vietnam War resulted in the death of over 400 New Mexicans with 8 from Alamogordo.

Adrian Jay Hart, an Army soldier from Albuquerque, New Mexico, died in the Persian Gulf War. In total, 219 US service members died during the war, with 154 killed in battle and 65 from other causes. 35 of the battle deaths were due to friendly fire.

This Memorial Day 2024 we remember and pay tribute to New Mexico’s fallen hero’s and those throughout the nation.

Listen to AlamogordoTownNews.org on KALHRadio.org with Anthony Lucero’s podcast tribute to Memorial Day at

https://youtu.be/_UqUgBAYzLU?si=TdP-8_oA4wI8828i