Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Kirkland, WA and Iraq

I noticed today that another soldier from Kirkland, WA (a suburb of Seattle) was killed in Iraq. That makes 4 from Kirkland. For a city that relatively small, that's an incredibly high number. Here is the list of cities that have lost more than 4 soldiers in Iraq.

1. New York City, 15
2. Los Angeles, 14
3. Houston, 13
4. San Antonio and Portland, 7
6. El Paso, Buffalo, and Phoenix, 6
9. Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Tampa, San Diego, and Tucson, 5

That's it. All large cities, except for maybe Tucson. And then Kirkland. This means that Kirkland has as many or more deaths than Chicago, Seattle, Dallas, Washington, Miami, Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, and other large cities.

Is this blind luck or is there something about Kirkland where they have a high enlistment rate? Do any Seattle readers have any insight?