thanks Irish. I am sure many people know that the traveling wall went to Ireland last year (?) to honor those Irishmen, and I believe an Irish-born woman, who died, and many who served. I am not sure if they served as Irish citizens or as immigrants. Of course, some, and I have met one, and so have some of you, immigrated to Australia and got drafted. And even without direct involvement, there are certainly ties between Ireland and America...and people have family members, cousins, brothers etc. There was a wreath laying at the wall this year by an Irish veteran (at least I read there was) in honor of ???not sure..I think Nurse Donavan, one of the few women on the wall (many women who died were civilians and therefore not on the wall but are of course remembered).
I met a Mexican man who says he and many others enlisted from Mexico. I can't verify this other than to believe him. And of course Puerto Ricans enlisted in great numbers, and are in a different category of citizenship. I have heard it said there were whole villages in Puerto Rico where there were no young men at all. Not a one.
And the thing that shocked me so much when I first looked at the book of the dead was (1) how many officers there were and (2) how many Irish names there were. And you will heard it said that many many of the Nurse Corps at the time were Irish American young women. I can't verify this either..