Saving the VFW: the how and why?

Tracing its roots back to 1899, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has focused on helping the men and women sent to fight their nation’s battles receive fair and equitable treatment upon their return home. By 1914, the VFW was formally established and by 1936, they received a congressional charter.

Since then, the VFW has played a pivotal role in fighting for and obtaining what are now basically entitlements to most veterans. From helping to establish the Veterans Administration, to the development of the national cemetery system, obtaining compensation and care for victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam, and the roll out of the Montgomery and Post 9/11 GI Bill, the VFW has done more for veterans than any other veteran service organization in our country. Additionally, VFW chapters across the country perform countless charitable services for their communities.

But what of the VFW’s future? Who would pick up the torch and lead the charge on veteran issues if the VFW were no longer around to do so? Do veteran interests have a fighting chance without the VFW? Unfortunately, we may be on the verge of finding out.

Chris Smith, a member of the VFW Post 1054, and his daughter, lay flowers inside the Yokohama Cremation Memorial. Yokohama, Japan, May 26, 2019. Photo by Wendy Brown, U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs

Why is the VFW dying?

Memberships keep the VFW alive and memberships are dropping. According to Justin Johnson, Commander of VFW Post 5066 and Vice Commander of VFW District 10, this is a trend that the VFW sees when their senior generation of veterans meets veterans from modern conflict. “When Vietnam vets came home, the World War Two and Korean War vets kind of treated them like [crap]. So a lot of the Vietnam guys would rather start their own thing than join the VFW.”

Andrew Farrer, the VFW’s Department of Tennessee Chaplain, said that this trend is continuing. According to Farrer, “These older Vietnam guys, they say they want new people to join, but when it comes time to vote on making changes that will bring younger people in, nobody wants to disrupt the norm.”

It doesn’t help that the VFW has systematically excluded women since 1936. In fact, it wasn’t until 2014 — thirteen years into the war in Afghanistan — that the VFW changed the wording of its Congressional Charter which until then described itself as “a national association of men” who served in wartime. In the same amendment, they changed the term “widows” to “surviving spouses.”

Unfortunately, revising archaic language to reflect the increased female presence in the military isn’t enough when attitudes fail to reflect that change. Kate Hoit, an Army Reservist who served eight years and deployed to Iraq as part of OIF described the VFW as “unwelcoming” and “out of touch.”

According to Hoit, when she attempted to join her local VFW as an OIF veteran, she was asked if she needed a military spouse application instead.

Hoit was deeply offended and says that she will never join a VFW. “I’m not going to go the VFW or the Legion [to] drink and smoke cigarettes,” Hoit said. “I want to be out in my community.”

Hoit’s experience isn’t surprising when you consider how long it took for the organization to include women in their charter language, or the fact that of the VFW’s 65 voting members of their governing body, only one of them is a woman.

Can the VFW be saved?

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” -Charles Darwin

Organizations of all kinds have to change with the times if they want to attract new members. Veteran Service Organizations (VSO) are no different. Few people in the veteran community understand this better than Nate McDonald, Vice President of Irreverent Warriors and newly admitted VFW member.

Nate attended his first Irreverent Warriors event in 2018: a “Silkies Hike” in Jacksonville, North Carolina. At that time, Irreverent Warriors was less of a VSO and more of a loosely structured, grass roots movement focused on preventing veteran suicide through dark humor, camaraderie, and Ranger Panties/Silkies.

The events were successful, but they were also booze-fueled, hyper-sexualized, affronts to the surrounding communities and to the civilian population. Nate knew that if the organization didn’t change its model and its culture, their mission would be unsustainable regardless of its value.

“I get the hesitancy,” Nate said referring to the VFW’s steadfast commitment to the old ways of doing things. “When we were looking to change [Irreverent Warriors], the guys who’ve been around from the beginning, myself included, were like ‘Ehhh, I don’t know man, I don’t want us to lose our edge.’ But really, if we didn’t curb the drinking and eliminate the nudity and profanity, we wouldn’t have survived.”

Nate says that the VFW’s “old guard” is similar in their apprehension, but even more reluctant to change. According to him, a lot of posts run by older veterans don’t want to compromise their smoke filled, boys club set to Creedence Clearwater and Country Joe & the Fish.

The stark reality is, however, that without taking the necessary steps, a lot of these older veterans won’t have a VFW hall if they remain resistant to modernizing.

VFW representatives salute during Memorial Day Observance 2019 at the Yokohama War Cemetery in the Hodogaya Ward of Yokohama, Japan, May 26, 2019. Photo by Wendy Brown, U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs

What will we lose if we lose the VFW?

• Physical Space – It may sound trivial, but having a permanent physical presence that belongs to the veteran community is an invaluable resource. It gives veterans a place to congregate, care for, and call their own.
• A Sense of Purpose and Belonging – With their centralized command, rank structure, and mission, the VFW gives members a familiar sense of purpose and belonging that many of us feel has been missing since we got out of the military.
• Advocacy – According to the VFW, they have “played an instrumental role in virtually every significant piece of veterans’ legislation passed in the 20th century, as well as bills enacted in the 21st century.” This includes Vocational Rehabilitation, Veterans Preference Point System, GI Bill of Rights, Veterans Preference Act, Veteran Emergency Housing Act, Veterans Health Care, Training & Small Business Loan Act, Protestors banned from military funerals, Stolen Valor Act signed into law.

The VFW is a valuable resource that has provided many of the entitlements so many of us take for grated. I think we can all agree that we’d like to see the VFW continue to thrive in the modern world with an ever-growing membership base of younger veterans from more recent conflicts. But for this to happen, the “old guard” has to accept the new veteran.

Move the smoking area outside. Swap out a bottle of Evan Williams for a bottle of Fireball. Trade the old Jukebox for a Spotify account. Emplace more women in leadership roles. Post 9/11 veterans would love a place to call their own. But that place has to feel like it’s theirs, not their grandfather’s.