Established Veterans Groups Fight To Attract The Next Generation

I'm a member of Post 53, Harriman, TN and proud to say so. That said-I'm also probably the only guy in there under fifty.

What I see is this-The Vietnam Veterans fought very hard to get the respect "we" were given from the start...so, for them, it's about a sense of ownership in an organization that was seriously in decline as little as twenty years ago. I grew up around my dad's Post 202, and never saw the "booze hounds". The American Legion sponsored the Boy Scout troop I belonged to, gave out scholarship funds, and promoted veterans' rights. The old fellers are looking for some of the younger men and women to step up and keep it alive...and that's not an easy task to be sure.

"We" forget too that most of these men grew up during and immediately after WWII...when the U.S. obtained complete victory over conventional enemies. They lived with "Duck and Cover. They then fought a nasty, drawn out and internally contested war in Vietnam without sufficient closure. They are hoping we're going to show up and tell them how we beat the un-holy out of Iraq and Afghanistan...not that we too were fighting a war with murky aims and less than stellar results.

It's a culture clash that leads to poor stereotypes, and all I can say is that any recent veteran deciding to join should go into it with an open mind-willing to listen, as much as talk.

Well-worn topic started again with a 4 month old article.