Joe this is the complete interview…still feel the same?
VFW membership nationwide in serious decline — commanderMessenger Staff Reporter
Glen Gardner Jr. of Round Rock, Texas, warned that the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is in real danger of going the way of the covered wagon.
“If we don’t recruit new young men and women into this organization, 10 or 15 years from now, the (national commander) won’t have the opportunity to visit posts like this. These posts won’t exist,” Gardner told a sparse luncheon gathering Wednesday at VFW Post 4862 in Union City.
Gardner, 64, national commander of the VFW, is on a 12-city tour of Tennessee to brief the Tennessee membership about several topics of interest to veterans. In his address at the local post, he expressed grave concern about a steady decline in VFW membership nationwide.
“I call upon you to help us build a foundation for the future of this great organization that must exist in this country for another 100 years,” he said.
Tennessee VFW commander Curtis Damron, who accompanied Gardner, reported membership statewide has declined about 700 the last year, and three VFW posts have been closed. “They (the posts) weren’t participating well and members were getting old. We weren’t getting any new ones in,” he said.
Gardner said he is “greatly concerned” about the future of VFW and its ladies auxiliary, adding, “If you’re not concerned, then you don’t understand the problem.”
Numbers, he said, tell the story very well.
“We have 1.6 million members today,” he said, of which:
• 495,000 are older than 82.
• 300,00 are older than 72 (and younger than 82).
• Less than 10 percent are younger than 50.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that we’re in a deep hole, and we’ve got to get ourselves out of it,” he said.
Founded in 1899 and chartered by Congress in 1936, VFW is the nation’s largest organization of war veterans. A nonprofit organization, it is comprised of combat veterans and those who currently serve on active duty or in the National Guard and Reserves.
“I served in Texas for 22 years as the adjutant quartermaster,” Gardner said. “I saw the decline of posts from about 620 to (what it is now) 400. And where those declines took place, it hurt a lot of rural communities. In those rural communities, the VFW post was where everything went on. That’s where social activities took place; that’s where everybody gathered for social enjoyment; school functions were held there.
“But when a post ceases to exist, all that goes away.”
VFW members, he added, have a responsibility to the young men and women serving in the military forces today. They will need VA hospitals and entitlements.
“We have thousands of young men and women, higher percentages than ever before, that are coming back seriously injured,” he said.
“I was in Germany at (a U.S. military hospital) and talked to two Marines who had been wounded less than 24 hours before I was talking to them. That’s how quickly they’re taken off the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan and taken to where they can get medical treatment in a hospital.
“That’s a good thing. A challenge to us as a veterans organization is that we speak out on behalf of veterans. These young men and women need treatment and they’ll need help for many more years.”
And yes, he emphasized, women, too.
“At no time in this country’s history have we sent as many women into combat as we have in Afghanistan and Iraq the last five years,” he said. “About 200,000 women have now served in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I’m not talking about just nurses and supply clerks. I’m talking about front-line, rifle-carrying combat personnel. And many of them are coming back without arms or legs. And they’re going to need a VA hospital and the kind of medical treatment the rest of us have enjoyed over the years.
“At no time in our history have we ever had a higher percentage of those in the military eligible for VFW (membership). But in no time in our history have we ever done the job we should have done in recruiting them into our organization.
“We probably never signed up more than 10 percent of the World War II veterans and 10 to 15 percent of the Korean War veterans.”
Today’s VFW members, he said, have a responsibility, a job to do.
“I ask you to help me make sure that we continue to do the great work so that we don’t let down these young men and women that are serving today by letting this great organization die away.”
Later, in an interview with The Messenger, Gardner attributed the decline in membership to a change in culture.
“Kids today have so many different things to do. Go to any base and you’ll see what I’m talking about,” he said.
“I was at Camp Pendleton (Calif.) in November. The base commander told me he was closing the officers club on Jan. 1. At Fort Hood (Texas), there used to be six clubs. Now there’s one combined club.
“These kids are into computers and do a lot of different things. They don’t look at the social aspects of the organization like we did. They are not into our kind of social atmosphere. But they will join VFW. I’ve never had one turn me down when I asked them to join.
“It’s going to be up to the (individual) post to create the kind of atmosphere to get them in and active on a post level. And quite honestly, it’s going to be very difficult to do.”
What will VFW look like 25 years from now? “That’s anybody’s guess,” Gardner said. “If all else fails, we could end up with an organization like NRA (National Rifle Association) or AARP (American Association of Retired Persons).”
Published in The Messenger 2.26.09
http://www.nwtntoday.com/news.php?viewStory=23304
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