Fighting Veterans Day Apathy

N ovember 11 is Veterans Day, a solemn occasion often overlooked by the public and insufficiently marked by the media. On this day in 1918, the Armistice with Germany went into effect, thus concluding the war to end all wars. First known as “Armistice Day,” the holiday has since broadened in scope but has remained true to its original conception of honoring the service of all former military personnel.

Unfortunately, not all veterans have been treated with the respect they’ve earned. Their suffering, from wounds both visible and unseen, has often been forgotten.

After the Vietnam War, for instance, thousands of returning service members encountered scorn and derision from their compatriots. Scapegoated for a conflict that had grown increasingly unpopular, they did what they could to put their service behind them.

One such veteran was Robert Doubek, who served as an Air Force intelligence officer during the war. He was working as an attorney when he was invited to a meeting of Vietnam veterans to discuss how to bring more attention to the plight of their fellow servicemen. Out of this discussion, the idea for a Vietnam Veterans Memorial was born. Doubek, along with his colleagues Jan Scruggs and Jack Wheeler, established the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to financing the memorial’s construction on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The nonprofit was incorporated in 1979, and three years later, thanks to the support of Senators Charles Mathias Jr., a Republican from Maryland, and John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, designed by Maya Lin, was dedicated. Due to bureaucratic neglect, many names of veterans who had perished during the war were initially left off the memorial, but Doubek managed to get scores of names added in time for the dedication. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the memorial’s dedication. Doubek says his involvement in the memorial’s construction was one of the “greatest honors of [his] life.” He has since documented his work on the project in the book Creating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: The Inside Story.

Frank Larkin is another veteran dedicated to ensuring that former servicemen receive the respect and care they deserve. Larkin was a Navy SEAL, the 40th Senate sergeant at arms, and the chairman of Warrior Call, a grassroots initiative that seeks to strengthen bonds between service members and veterans by fostering more peer-to-peer interaction. Larkin says that “peer-based interventions are a key tool in suicide prevention,” especially when the VA is failing those who put life and limb on the line for our nation. Numerous prominent veterans’ organizations around the country, 27 Medal of Honor winners, and a resolution in the U.S. Senate all support Warrior Call. For Larkin, who lost his son Ryan, also a veteran, to suicide, this has become his life’s work.

Warrior Call is pushing Congress and the Biden administration to declare the Sunday after Veterans Day “National Warrior Call Day” in hopes of spreading awareness of the crisis some veterans face, particularly those who have become detached from loved ones and support systems that could intervene before they take their own lives. The campaign asks Americans, specifically active-duty and retired military personnel, to reach out to someone with mental-health complications from their time in uniform and connect them with available resources. This initiative has never been more urgent. A Brown University study suggests that 30,177 active-duty personnel and veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have died by suicide, many more than the 7,057 killed in the global War on Terror.

As elections and political fights come and go, Americans should remember the unstinting sacrifice of those who serve and have served this country. The best way we can honor our veterans is by following the lead of Doubek and Larkin in reclaiming the day from the perils of public indifference.