Veteran groups grapple with declining membership. What's at stake if they can't bring in new blood?

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Veteran groups vie to attract younger generations as memberships decline | Digital Originals

Veteran groups like the American Legion offer camaraderie and political advocacy. But as membership levels steadily decline, they must appeal to younger vets.

TIGARD, Ore. – When a bill to aid military veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins during their service stalled in the Senate, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veterans groups sprang into action.

Two weeks later, President Biden signed the PACT Act into law.

But some veterans worry their political influence could decline as veterans service organizations struggle with dwindling membership levels.

"If we don't bring in the younger generation, if we don't have these people, then the American Legion doesn't survive," American Legion Post 158 Commander Allyson Kropf said.

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Allyson Kropf is the commander of American Legion Post 158 in Tigard, Oregon. (Fox News/Hannah Ray Lambert)

Kropf joined her local American Legion post in Tigard, Oregon, last year, seeking the camaraderie she had been missing since leaving the Navy. At 39, she's one of the youngest members but doesn't mind that most of her buddies are in their 70s. She takes a seat at the Legion bar most Fridays and finds shared community and understanding.

"I would have loved to have gotten involved way, way sooner because it was something that I was missing a lot," she said.

The American Legion had two real heydays, according to membership director Matthew Herndon. Membership hit an all-time high of more than 3.3 million veterans in 1946 when World War II ended, and reached a similar level in the ‘90s, Herndon said.

"Now you're you're looking at an organization of almost 2 million members," he said.

The American Legion has lost more than 700,000 members over the last decade. The VFW has seen a similar decline. Between 2017 and 2021, membership dropped from 1.2 million to just over 1 million, according to VFW data.

"Membership numbers are a direct reflection of the number of individuals serving our country and living veterans," VFW spokesman Randi Law told Fox News in an email. "Today, less than 1% of America serves, and we continue to lose our WWII veteran population at a rapid rate."

Herndon agreed that the decrease is primarily tied to a shrinking pool of veterans. In 1945, there were around 12.2 million people in the U.S. military. Today, there are about 1.3 million active duty service members.

"I am concerned about the levels," Kropf said. "As time goes on, we lose more and more and more, due to attrition … and then unfortunately death or what we call post everlasting."

Kropf worried that declining membership could make the American Legion less of a political powerhouse.

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American Legion membership has declined from more than 3 million veterans after World War II, to about 1.6 million members today. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

"The American Legion is one of the biggest proponents for any sort of legislation for veterans," she said. If a bill the Legion supports stalls in Congress, an alert goes out to their members, Kropf said, and legislators can expect a flood of emails.

That's what happened in late July, when GOP senators stalled the PACT Act over a Democratic provision allowing $400 billion in mandatory spending unrelated to veterans. The American Legion, VFW and other veterans advocates rallied on Capitol Hill the next day, accusing senators of playing politics with peoples' lives.

Kropf estimates some 3,000 veterans emailed their congressmen and women.

The Senate passed the bill days later, marking the biggest overhaul in history of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ process for providing benefits to Gulf War and post-9/11 veterans harmed by burn pit smoke or other toxins while deployed. Prior to its passage, the VA denied around 78% of disability claims connected to burn pit exposure.

Law called the PACT Act the "most important veterans legislation of our time" and said its passage proves that the VFW is stronger than ever, even if membership numbers are trending down.

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Veterans and supporters of the PACT act demonstrate outside the U.S. Capitol Building on Aug. 2, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

"Each generation, in a lot of ways, is so different from the previous generation and their issues and problems," Kropf said. "So we can't make, in my opinion, better legislation for the younger vets if we don't have the insight of the younger vets."

One of the main barriers to recruiting new veterans is that young people are just so busy, Kropf said. They have full-time jobs, spouses and children competing for their time. It's often much easier for retirees to volunteer and make time for American Legion events, she said. 

"But I am optimistic because at every level, national and state, they are trying their best to think of ways to bring in this younger generation," she said.

The Legion hosted an online video game tournament last December that was viewed by more than 25,000 people and incorporated gaming stations into its most recent national convention. Individual posts are starting to get into gaming as well, Herndon said.

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"Just trying to find what veterans want, what do they need," Herndon said. "Ultimately it's the camaraderie, it's the support system, it's the networking that the American Legion is able to provide."

The VFW engages service members even before they become veterans through its pre-discharge offices situated on or near more than 20 major military bases, Law told Fox News. Representatives can help troops prepare for civilian life, including answering questions about VA benefits.

"Educating veterans and service members about our programs, services, advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill, while exposing them to the ongoing camaraderie they can experience within our organization remains our greatest recruiting tool," Law wrote.

Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video.