Some veterans groups struggling to recruit younger members

By Aimee Norton

Published: March 25, 2008

Maurice Millner joins members of the American Legion in Lynchburg, on the way to another funeral for a local veteran on Tuesday. They attend about 200 every year.

“They’re going real fast.  We get a lot of Vietnam veterans’ funerals now too,” said Millner.

And that’s putting the future of veterans groups like the VFW in jeapardy.

“What’s really killing us is trying to get the young people in; that is our big thing to do right now,” said John Stewart. He is the Chaplain of Amherst Post 9877.  That post almost closed last year bedause of low membership. There are only 43 members.  Stewart says in the last 10 years more than 2,000 VFW posts have closed around the country because veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan aren’t joining the ranks.

“It’s a struggle when you come back and these young troops coming back now with deployment after deployment. It’s tough on them, but we want to help them and that’s the mission of the VFW,” said Stewart.

At 62, he’s the youngest officer in his post.  He says more Vietnam veterans are getting involved. Stewart hopes in the next 20 years, this generation of veterans will also sign up, if the local posts are still around.

“If we don’t get some people to come out and help us, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Stewart said.

Post Commanders in Bedford and Lynchburg tell WSLS the average only 10-15 members at regular meetings. One of the benefits of the joining the VFW can be networking to find jobs after deployments.