USA TODAY International Edition
Vietnam vets C nd home in groups they once avoided
Joining VFW, legion ‘ a time-of- life thing’
Vietnam veterans have become the backbone of the nation’s largest veterans organizations after decades of avoiding them following service in an unpopularwar.
Vietnam vets are joining the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars in greater numbers, in part because the groups lobby for their interests in Washington, says Kirsten Gronbjerg of Indiana University, who studies membership
“They’re older,” Gronbjerg says. “ Some of the initial disjunctions they experienced have faded a bit. Disability, pension issues, health care now make a difference to them.”
Larry Kutschma, 58, says he felt belittled by older vets when he returned from Vietnam in the late 1960s — they said he hadn’t fought in a “ real war.”
Now he’s been a member of the VFW in Racine, Wis., for 10 years. “ Through the years our feelings change,” he says. He works on a VFW project sending packages to troops in Iraq.
The 3.5 million World War II organizations. vets are dying at a rate of 1,025 per day, says the Department of Veterans Affairs. The 8 million living Vietnam veterans are in their late 50s and early 60s.
The American Legion, which has 2.7 million members, is open to anyone who was in the military during wartime. The VFW, with 1.8 million, is open to those who served overseas in a foreign war or operation.
Legion spokesman Joe March says World War II vets used to be the mainstay membership but obviously are“ moving on to our ‘ Post Everlasting.’ ”
The Legion has 845,749 Vietnam vets. That’s a third of its members, the largest percentage from one war and the fastest- growing group, says national commander Thomas Bock.
“It’s a time- of-life thing,” says Bock, who was in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. “ When you come back, you’ve got other priorities: raising a family, beginning your life.”
Half the VFW membership is World War II or Korean War veterans, says spokesman Jerry Newberry. But one- third of the new members, and almost all the leaders, are Vietnam vets.
“ We recognized some years ago that a natural progression would have to take place,” he says. “The torch has to be passed on to the next generation of vet.”