20 Key Facts About Veterans That’ll Make You Emotional

Kevin Briggs is a San Francisco Highway Patrol Officer and a veteran of US Army, who has talked approximately 200 people out of suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge since 1994.

After returning from World War 2 over 1 million Black Americans were denied the benefits of the GI bill for free education and low rate home loans.

A Vietnam War veteran named Michael A. Smith waited in line at (American actress) Jane Fonda book signing just to spit tobacco juice in her face, calling her a traitor to the US for her actions in the 1970s.

A Canadian military veteran amputee named Paul Franklin had to submit annual paperwork to prove his legs were still missing in order to continue his disability benefits.

The tombstone of U.S. Air Force veteran and gay rights activist Leonard Matlovich states this: "When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."

US veterans can have Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor, engraved in their headstones as a religious symbol.

Daniel F. Bakeman, the alleged last surviving veteran of the American Revolutionary War also had the longest recorded marriage at 91 years, 12 days: The only documented marriage to have broken the 90-year anniversary mark.

Harry Wilhelm was an unemployed World War 1 veteran who memorized the entire US Constitution during the Great Depression. Representative Sol Bloom bet he couldn’t recite it perfectly. When Wilhelm proved him wrong, Bloom immediately gave him a job.

A US Army veteran named Shawn Nelson became severely depressed after his wife filed divorce, both parents died of cancer, his plumbing equipment got stolen, income stopped, utilities cut off and his house went into foreclosure. He stole a tank from the armory, went on a rampage on the streets destroying cars and was finally shot and killed.

James Stewart is the highest-ranking actor in military history (Brigadier General). He was World War 2 and Vietnam War Veteran and Licensed Commercial Pilot. In 1996, he was due to have the battery in his pacemaker changed but opted not to, preferring to let things happen naturally.