According to several different outlets, more than 41 million Americans have served in the time of war, this spans from the Revolutionary time to our current war on terrorism.

Of those, more than 1,090,000 have died in the line of duty and right now there are more than 19,000,000 living ex members of our armed forces. To all of these men and women, we our our deepest gratitude.

What has become a holiday, was previously designated Decoration Day, inaugurated in 1868 by Gen. John A. Logan for the purpose of decorating the graves of Civil War veterans.

Of course it has since become a day on which all war dead are commemorated and a day in which those of use who enjoy freedom, say thank you. These are pictures that came to mind when I was thinking of this post. ‘Freedom’ comes from the World War II Memorial. ‘The Vietnam Memorial’ needs no introduction. ‘Morning on the Erie’ is the flag raising on the USS Lake Erie as the sun rose above Pearl Harbor. “Stars & Stripes’ were flags posted on a previous 4th of July at the California Veterans Home.

Here are a few pictures I snapped while on the quick trip to DC. I thought I would have time to walk down the mall, but between meetings and the dinner, I had absolutely no time whatsoever. So these pics, other than the Washington Monument, came from near the Fox Bureau. The Monument picture I took in a cab while driving in traffic. You can see my seat was ok for the dinner and we had a nice group of people at our table including correspondents Jennifer Griffin, Greg Kelly and James Rosen. Bob Novak, some great DC producers, Marine General Conway and his wife were also at our table.

With all the travel and stories, I haven’t had the opportunity to play our little game. So…here it is. The Picture of the Day. What is this, where and why was it being used. I know you are going to have some great guesses! Didn’t Greta copy this game?

As we make quick trips between live reports to get video, we have our camera’s in hand. Bogota’ in many ways reminds me of Caracas and San Salvador. The city spreads into deep lush-green hillsides. In some cases the mountains soar out of the plateau into dramatic peaks and jagged ridges. You can tell this city has an energy and comfort about it, even though I have never been here before, the sense I get is a relaxed feel that hasn’t been here in some time. I wouldn’t call it a rebirth, but I would say after years of violence Colombia takes a path of peace that hasn’t been seen here in a couple of generations. Sure there are problems and poverty, but when 70-80% of the population says they are happy and people we meet talk about how they can now visit places once too dangerous, it makes me wonder if this democracy will continue to strengthen, or will it face challenges from Chavez, Correa and leftist leaders intent on destroying opportunity. Here are some pictures, including one of the crew in our van. Scott is on the left and Mike is on the right.

Because I will be a bit busy today and wont post until the afternoon, I wanted to pass along some of my favorite photo’s. Some may be an easy guess, but others might be a little challenging. Well, what do you think? Hope you enjoy the slideshow and tomorrow I will be posting some video of the trunk show. You’ll see, we’ve got some great people who run it here at Fox.