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Veterans of America
Nicholas Grogg
American Military University
HRMT 600
Dr. Vanessa Claus
26 September 2021
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Underrepresented Veterans in America
Ever since the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, the number of veterans in America has been on
the rise, with these numbers growing due to the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. The Vietnam and
Gulf Wars saw a total of over 10 million service members serving, with almost 400,000 coming
out wounded or a casualty (“History of American Wars”, n.d.). And while you would think that
the number of veterans would be on the rise due to the size of the military branches increasing as
well as the expansion of military branches, this is actually not true. The number of veterans in
America has actually been on the decline over the last 20 years, going from about 26 million to
18 million (“Census Bureau releases New Report on Veterans”, 2020). However, 18 million out
of a population of 300 million is still very high, and America as a country should be doing as
much as they can to take care of these veterans who have sacrificed everything for this country.
The reason for this decline comes from many reasons such as the change from a draft to a
volunteer-based service commitment to many veterans from the Vietnam/Gulf Wars suffering
from more physical pains than mental ones. In recent years as well, many of the veterans from
post-9/11 have about a 43% chance of having a service-connected disability, with 39% of those
having a disability rating of over 70% (“Census Bureau releases New Report on Veterans”,
2020). Many of these veterans are facing many issues, not even related to their disability. Some
of these issues are being unable to find work or even provide themselves with basic food and
shelter. Not only that but many veterans are forced to receive medical services related to their
disability from the VA, which has a history of providing inadequate service to military members.
In two surveys in 2019, both US adults and service members expressed unfavorable views
towards the VA, with more than 50% of military members expressing that they were
unsatisfactory with the job that VA was doing (Schaeffer, 2021). One would think that our
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country would be doing more for US veterans with everything they have sacrificed for their
country, including their health, time, and lives. But instead, many veterans are left to suffer from
problems such as TBIs, PTS, depression, anxiety, dissolution of marriages, alcoholism, and
suicidal thoughts. Any one of these problems by themselves could cause problems for a veteran,
however many veterans suffer from multiple issues such as these. And these issues themselves
create other problems, such as poverty, job or income loss, mental illness, substance abuse,
health problems; all of which can be confounded by issues such as a lack of family or social
support networks.
In addition to the mental and physical issues that veterans face upon their return to the
states, one of the other big issues that they face is homelessness due to some of the issues
mentioned above. In fact, of the 2.3 to 3.5 million who experience homelessness on a nightly
basis in America, about 23% are veterans (“Facts about homeless veterans”, n.d.). That would
equal about 529,000 to 840,000 veterans experiencing homelessness at some point or another
throughout the year. All in all, many veterans experience a rough time after returning home from
serving their military contracts out, retiring, or being medically discharged. This paper will be
discussing the need for a diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative for veterans in the United
States, and how the initiative in place already could be doing more for this underrepresented and
underserved group.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative
The diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative that I would implement to help resolve the
issues veterans face in their lives after ending their military career, especially those who come
across hard times when returning home. The initiative I would implement would be similar to
homeless shelters, but they would only provide services for the niche of military veterans and
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their families. They would operate in the same way as homeless shelter, providing basic food and
shelter services, however they would also function like a social services office where they could
assist veterans with finding jobs to support their families instead of having to rely on the
government for sustenance. This service would be able to help veterans get up off their feet and
provide for themselves, which would help eliminate many other problems faced by veterans. By
being able to provide for themselves there is less of a chance that they would be homeless. Also,
by being able to find employment would also possibly prevent many of the mental health issues
they face. Having something to do on a regular basis, even a schedule to do so helps prevent a lot
of anxiety and PTSD, as the veterans can feel useful again and have a purpose in life again, as
they did when they were employed by the military. The social services section will also be able
to help as mediums between the VA and the veterans being provided shelter and services. This
would help prevent the other issues veterans face with mental and physical, as they would be
able to not only find easy access to the services by the VA, but they would also have assistance
in negotiating the many issues faced when dealing with the VA, such as insurance issues.
This incentive would face a few challenges when being created, one of the biggest ones
would be financing. However, with as large as the military defense budget is, it should not be
difficult to find a small budget to set aside for this initiative. This initiative could also be funded
by business donations as many other non-profit agencies do. These donations could be written
off as tax write-offs which would encourage business to support them. As far as employing
personnel to work this initiative, it would only take a few employed supervisor positions to
manage the main services, and the rest of the positions needed could be filled by prior veterans
or even by members of VHAs in the area. I am sure VHAs would be willing to support a social
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service catered specifically towards helping veterans get off their feet and provide for
themselves.
Conclusion
With this diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative veterans all over the United States
would be able to be saved from the daily struggles that they can deal with upon returning home
from the United States. This initiative would be able to provide basic necessities such as food,
shelter, job opportunities, and VA correspondence and cooperation. With these services being
provided veterans will be able to receive the assistance they deserve for everything they have
given up for this country. These services will help with relieving some of the mental and
physical issues veterans suffer from and help them to improve their quality of life.
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References
Census Bureau releases New Report on Veterans. (2020, June). The United States Census
Bureau. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/2020/veterans-report.html.
HISTORY OF AMERICAN WARS. (n.d.). Gettysburg Flag Works. Retrieved September 26,
2021, from https://www.gettysburgflag.com/history-of-american-wars.
Facts about homeless veterans. (n.d.). Pine Street Inn. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from
https://www.pinestreetinn.org/news_events/facts_about_homeless_veterans.
Schaeffer, K. (2021, April). The changing face of America's veteran population. Pew Research
Center. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://www.pewresearch.org/facttank/2021/04/05/the-changing-face-of-americas-veteran-population/.