For most people, Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, the time to start kicking back and enjoying the warm weather and leisure time with family and friends. But as most of us know, the holiday has somber overtones as it is the day when the U.S. honors all the soldiers that have lost their lives in the various wars our country has been involved in, dating back to World War I.

Asides from honoring those who have sacrificed their lives for the freedoms our citizens enjoy, this is also a good time to take a step back and examine some of the numerous technologies whose roots lie in the military. Many of these technologies were originally targeted towards specific military tasks, but over the years have been adopted for civilian use. They are in many cases essential to our daily existence.

Some of these technologies follow in the gallery below:

Spencer Chin is a Senior Editor for Design News covering the electronics beat. He has many years of experience covering developments in components, semiconductors, subsystems, power, and other facets of electronics from both a business/supply-chain and technology perspective. He can be reached at [email protected]