Military experience has declined amongst the U.S. population. Pew Research Center states that active-duty personnel have decreased since the military draft ended in 1973. The number of active-duty service members dropped from 3.5 million in 1968, during the military draft era, to about 1.3 million in today’s all-volunteer force.
The report indicates that active-duty service members comprise less than 1 percent of all U.S. adults. Veterans who served in the last 30 years make up the largest number of living veterans.
As of 2023, 7.8 million living U.S. veterans, or 43 percent, served in the Gulf War era. 5.6 million living veterans (30 percent) served during the Vietnam War era from 1950 to 1973. Around 767,000 veterans who served during the Korean conflict in the 1940s and 1950s are alive today, making up 4 percent of all living veterans. Fewer than 120,000 World War II veterans are alive today, making up less than 1 percent.
With each successive generation, the question becomes whether or not today’s youth observes and recognizes Veterans Day.
On Nov. 11, at Mercy University’s Westchester campus, students, staff, and veterans held brunch in the Larry Bone Conference Room to commemorate Veterans Day and honor those who have served in America’s armed forces.
“What do I think is important for our students to understand about Veterans Day?” said Kevin Joyce, the Vice President of Student Affairs, as attendees arrived. “I think every day that they wake up, they have choices. They’re choosing to go to school right now. They’re choosing what they put on to come to school. There’s so much freedom in these choices, and our veterans have done an outstanding job in allowing us to have the freedoms that we have.”
To Greg Mazza, 31, a Marine Corps veteran, Veterans Day means peacefulness.
“I wake up in the morning, and I just know that because of veterans and active-duty members, I get to walk outside, do what I want to do,” he said. “Just enjoying the freedoms that come with what veterans and active duty provided.”
Manuel Ron, a U.S. veteran, initially joked about how Veterans Day means “free Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and chow.”
“No. Frankly, it’s just another day,” he said. “I don’t need to have a national recognition of veterans to understand what veterans do. Sometimes, we come home. Sometimes, we don’t make it home. I made it home from Central America, and I’m very grateful for that.”
All of the veterans attending claim their impulse to enlist started at home, including William Farber, a Navy veteran and Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at Mercy.
“We were kind of a Navy family,” Farber said. “My father was in the Navy in World War II. My brother was in the Navy, and all of my uncles. It was a tradition for us.”
Ron also came from a family where military service was a tradition.
“My father and all of my uncles were in World War II,” Ron said. “My mother was riveting bolts on planes to be sent overseas. I mean, I just grew up with it. My father, as a merchant marine, would go to Vietnam. In college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life, so I figured, ‘Let’s try the military.’ And then I went to the military, and I did ROTC.”
Mazza recounted the time he saw his relative in uniform.
“I had a cousin in the Marine Corps,” Mazza said. “I remember it was Christmas Eve one time, and I had a big old Christmas party with my family. I’m Italian. He walked in with his dress blues on. I just looked at him and was like, ‘Man, I want to be that.’”
Ron, now a business and finance professor at Mercy University, continues to apply the valuable lessons he learned during his service to his everyday life.
“After the military and sort of the activities that I had to undertake, not in the military schools, but in actual life in the military, I lost all of my fear,” he stated. “When you’re exposed to certain events in the world and in life, you can see how this is the worst that can happen, and it’s bad. You say, ‘Alright. Well, what’s the worst that’s going to happen?’ Because of that, I was able to create or craft a career for myself that if I can survive the jungles of Central America, I can do anything.”
Mazza described how his service influenced his view on freedom.
“It’s a wake-up,” he said. “You see it from the other side where you’re serving. When you see your best friend saying, ‘Oh, man! I’m going to this party,’ or ‘I got into this school,’ you can say, ‘I helped for that.’ So, it’s like a personal thank you or gratitude aspect. If you go to a park and see kids laughing, it’s an automatic thank you. You don’t need anything besides that.”
Donna Drumm, the Program Director for Legal Studies at Mercy University, described how students can honor and recognize veterans on the holiday.
“If you know a veteran, reach out to them and thank them for their service,” she said. “My husband’s son is a veteran, and I’m doing this in service of him. My father was also a Marine. The second is if you’re not aware of the soldier experience, to take a look at history, to take a look at Pearl Harbor.”
Drumm also detailed how students should become more aware of when the country talks about war, as it was an issue during the 2024 Presidential election. Questions like “What does that mean to be or serve in war?” and “What does that mean for us to support people we know that are serving our country?” seemed most appropriate for reflection.
“We use the word sacrifice, we use the word service,” she said. “And when you see or hear experiences from someone who served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnamese War, or the Afghan War, you get an idea of the sacrifices.”
As brunch wrapped up, the veterans concluded with final remarks.
“Every day should be Veterans Day,” Farber commented. “Veterans are a unique group of individuals of all genders. The idea of the Veterans Administration as a support system needs to be supported because there are too many homeless veterans. Some veterans don’t always transition into a certain vocation or avocation. And I have seen too many homeless veterans, so something really needs to be done about that.”
“Being a veteran, whether or not you saw combat, it doesn’t really matter,” Ron said. “When you do something with people—even if you don’t know them—that you have something in common, there is a bond. And so, there will be a bond with other veterans.”
Ron relayed a message to those interested in enlisting.
“I would recommend investigating it because it’s a process,” he stated. “And most of the military is not involved in combat. I won’t say most of the military is a 9 to 5 job, but it’s like a regular job. And with respect to today, thank you for recognizing.”
Mazza adds that “Happy Veterans Day” is not always appropriate because it’s not happy for some of them. “Just say thank you for your service and know what it’s really about. Many people think Veterans Day is about barbecues when it’s not.”
