veteran’s corner

Jason Hicks | Commander

United Patriotic bodies/ Fargo Memorial Honor Guard

Where have all the Veterans gone? According to the Veterans administration over half off all Veterans are over age 60. According to research and analysis the are 18.5 mil Veterans. Making the percentage around 6.5% (math was never my strong suit thus I became a cop,  lol)

So where am I going with this? Well to put it in perspective, when I was a kid, family reunions I was surrounded by Veterans, WW2, Korea, and the “youngsters” were the Vietnam vets (Who rarely if ever spoke of their service). There were civic leaders, politicians, business leaders and even our TV weather man Dewey Berquist (WW2 vet) who were Veterans.  They were active in their community and it showed. Every small town had a American Legion or VFW. Every small town parade had a large number of men and women who marched at the lead of the parade.

Fast forward to today, numbers in the largest service organizations are dropping extremely fast. Many clubs have closed or ceased to exist. What happens when these groups are gone? Great question, historically speaking every National Veterans organization has its roots in getting more and better benefits for our nations protectors. Did you know the VFW was formed by Spanish American War Veterans who were seeking treatments for illnesses incurred during their time in the service? Many came home with malaria and other strange and foreign diseases and were discharged from the service and offered no remedy? So they joined forces and became a powerful lobbying group in our nations capitol. The VFW and American Legion have been instrumental in securing the GI Bill of rights and numerous other programs. Many of our Veterans have used programs however they didn’t know the origin, it took a fight, by our nations Veterans in order to make that happen. The most current wide ranging program is the burn pit registry, pushed by all of the major Veterans service organizations. This will hopefully offer some help for a wide variety of ailments some have as a direct result of burn pits.

In conclusion, as I drive around I constantly see license plates indicating Veterans status, bumper stickers indicating various terms of service from Vietnam, Iraq Afghanistan etc.. Men and women wearing hats proudly showing their service. Always seeking an opportunity to engage fellow Veterans I try to go out of my way to thank them and ask them to become more involved. Turn that pride in service into pride of serving their community, even if its marching once a year in your towns parade.

We are in need of leaders these days and our nations Veterans can help, I am a fan of grass roots work and it’s a great starting point to become active in your community and beyond.