From Military.com:
“American Legion, VFW Posts
Work to Keep Doors Open, Connect With New Generation of Veterans”
(Dawn Monty talks with Dan Wojick
(left) and Carl Hale at the bar at the Westfield American Legion Post 124 in
Westfield, Massachusetts.)
Commander Wayne Keaton stood tall
in a crisp white uniform in front of the M-60 tank outside American Legion Post
185 in Agawam, Mass. The post is struggling, he said, both to find new members
and keep its building in shape to welcome the latest generation of veterans. “We
have no younger members signing up,” Keaton said. “I’m 63 and one of the
youngest ones here.” Louis Russo, chairman of Post 185 House Committee, sat in
his Rollator walker next to Keaton and explained how recruitment is on the back
burner because building safety is a top priority. “We did not know how much
longer we could go with that roof before we would have had to shut down,” Russo
said.
Across the country and the state,
veterans organizations like the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars
are confronting declining memberships. As they scramble to find ways to connect
with new veterans, they are also coping with increasing costs to keep their
posts’ buildings open. Everything from funding, closings forced by the COVID-19
pandemic, stigmas, veteran eligibility and the passing of a generation of men
and women who long sustained the American Legion, VFW and other veterans groups
are on the list of mounting concerns raised by members to state Sen. John C.
Velis, D-Westfield. It’s what prompted Velis to secure funds to help sustain
some Legion posts in his district, including Post 185, which received $50,000
to make building repairs. Post 185′s big push for new members to whom leaders
hope to someday day pass the baton has been a fruitless endeavor so far, Keaton
said. Velis, a major in the Army
Reserve, Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs
and member of Westfield’s Post 124, is making the rounds of his district to
visit Legion and VFW posts and listen to concerns. “The challenge is how do we
continue to expand at a time when membership is down,” Velis told the Post 185
leaders during a visit there. “I do not have the answer to that, but it is
something we must spend a lot of time thinking about.”
The American Legion is a veterans
service organization that traces its history back more than a century, started
by World War I vets and established by Congress in 1919. Since its founding,
the Legion has lobbied for veterans’ rights, including the original GI Bill
that was adopted in the wake of World War II, and helped create the federal
Department of Veterans Affairs. The focus of the organization is to strengthen
and enhance the lives of veterans through camaraderie, advocacy, programs and
services, according to the Legion’s website, legion.org. Albert Masciadrelli,
house secretary for Post 124 in Westfield, said most posts have a small purse. As
memberships have declined, so has income from renting out halls, while the
costs of maintenance and renovations on the to-do lists have risen. On July 6,
Velis also presented a $20,000 check to Post 124 to address building upkeep,
but additional funding is needed, Masciadrelli said. The grant came from the
state’s allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. “The problems
are horrendous. We used to have all kinds of pastimes,” he said. “We have a
(youth) baseball team now, but you do not see that group come in because they
do not have anything to do there is no room for it.” Velis noted that the
Legion impacted the direction of his own life after serving in Afghanistan in
2018. “I was a lost veteran. I was not sure what I was doing in life,” he said.
“This was before (when) I was not running for office. I was just John the
veteran. The commander at the time came up to me and said, ‘Welcome home.’” That’s
what has him focused now on the future of Legions and VFWs across the 2nd
Hampden & Hampshire District. “We can’t sit by idle as these buildings and
their membership goes,” Velis said.
(Louis Russo, chairman of the
House Committee at the American Legion Post 185 in Agawam, Massachusetts.)
A contributing factor to
enrollment declines is stigma and an invisible divide between veterans who
served post-9/11 and those before the Gulf War-era of the 1990s, the senator
said. “There is a flawed perception that it is just a dimly lit bar to drink
at,” Velis said. “Post-9/11 vets are likely to join run groups and others like
it, but they’re not mutually exclusive. It’s just a matter of getting them
through the doors to understand the role the legion plays,” he said.
Today, the American Legion has
about 2 million members in more than 13,000 posts worldwide. In Massachusetts
there are 285 posts in nine districts with 30,000 members.
The VFW, which traces its history
back to 1899 and veterans of the Spanish-American War, like the Legion, has
played an important role in services for veterans, including the GI Bill post
World War II and recently in the passage of the PACT Act. The VFW has 5,883
posts around the world and some 1.5 million members, according to its website,
vfw.org. “We have had just handful closings,” said Milton Lashus, the Legion’s
department adjutant for Massachusetts. “Although membership across the country
and in state are seeing declines, locally we had good year.” While there are
concerns, “things are not as bad as they seem,” Lashus said. Most posts, he
said, have met 100% or have exceeded their membership recruitment goals. In the
case of Westfield, which once had two posts, one building closed and members
were shifted to 124 without the surrender of the charter. Circumstances in
Brimfield, Chicopee and Indian Orchard in Springfield were similar. Members are
meeting in other locations or merging with VFW posts or other organizations,
like the Knights of Columbus, Lashus said.
Like the Legion the VFW struggles
with declines but has only had a couple of closures, said William LeBeau, the
Massachusetts state adjutant of VFW. “After the (COVID) shutdown, Post 3260 in
New Bedford, was not able to make the revenue, but they were in a place that
had several other locations that were healthy, members were either transferred
to one of those or a larger virtual post,” LeBeau said. More vets are turning
to virtual posts like in Watertown, according to Lebeau. “Those members have
just donated a trolley to their veterans,” he said. “These places are getting
away from the bar and doing great stuff in the community.” “It is not all
roses, but we’re not sitting back for doomsday trying to figure it out,” he
said. “We are learning how to navigate and transition because these
organizations are still voices that need to be heard.” Many responsible for
upkeep and memberships are World War II and Vietnam veterans, their passing
comes as another major hit.
Data from U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs suggest the largest population of vets in the U.S. are the 7.8
million Gulf War-era vets, surpassing the 5.9 million Vietnam vets in 2016. Additionally,
in 2021 less than 10% of the population were among the 19 million vets and by
2046 that number will decrease 35% to 12.5 million.
Velis cited the fastest growing
demographic of veterans today are woman. The VA’s 2021 population model shows
men make up 89% while 11% are women and by 2046 that will increase to 18%. “Now,
we have members of the LGBTQA, people from other countries who join our
military, and we have to have the same flexibility,” LeBeau said. Masciadrelli,
who did not see combat in Vietnam but served during the era, said the impact
may have come with eligibility dates. “A lot of people were turned off by
that,” he said. “I was bummed by it.” In July 2019, former President Donald
Trump signed the Legion Act, extending recognition of wartime service allowing
those who served outside of designated war eras to join the legion. “Once they
did away with those dates, I was able to join,” Masciadrelli said. Numbers tend
to fluctuate, but membership is strong and with the new PACT Act numbers will
rise again, Lashus said. “The act will go back 50 years and vets who were once
denied become eligible and are able to reapply,” he said. “So many veterans
come back (from service) and don’t know what the next steps in life are,” Velis
said. “A lot of the conversations and contacts they make here, clears that path
for them. As a commonwealth and society if we let these organizations go down,
we’re in for a world of hurt.”
^ It is sad to see the VFW and
the American Legion struggle with both financial woes and enrollment. I have
been to a few (as a Visitor with a Veteran) and have seen how it can help
Veterans hang out with other Veterans. I don’t know the solution to these two major
issues, but I hope they are resolved. ^
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