How many Americans were involved in World War 2?

Answer 1

There were sixteen million Americans in the service. This was ten per cent of the population at that time. Ten per cent was thought to be the most a modern industrial nation could spare for military service in a war without hurting war production. Many millions more worked in factories making war materials, in shipyards, steel plants, iron and coal mines, and on farms growing food to feed America and its allies, and fibers for cloth to outfit them. In American food, gasoline, shoes and other items were rationed. Local people served on ration boards and draft boards, and as air raid civil defense wardens, enforcing a nighttime blackout of all American cities, in the unlikely event the enemy was to appear overhead dropping bombs. There were no consumer goods to buy as all factories were making war material or were idle, because all raw materials went to war production. There were no new houses built during the war because the military had need of all building materials. There were no new cars made from 1942-46. The war affected the lives of everyone in the states, beyond those sixteen million who saw service.