How to Really Thank Members of the Military for Their Service
A headline from the New York Times in 1952 described Armed Forces Day as “the day on which we have the welcome opportunity to pay special tribute to the men and women of the Armed Forces… to all the individuals who are in the service of their country all over the world.”
Walk casually on any city street today and you’ll not find anyone unwilling to thank someone in uniform for their service, and as a former service member, I say you are most welcome and worth it.
Walk through the halls of Congress (both the House and the Senate), though, and you’ll hear a whole lot of talking with precious little action to back it up. I realize that might amount to some as “shots fired,” so let me explain.
Inflation hasn’t affected America in isolated pockets of the country, it’s affecting Americans all over, and that includes in our United States Armed Forces. According to the Military Times, over 20% of our troops are experiencing some kind of food insecurity. That’s right. Those service members fighting for the freedoms you’re thanking them for every day are having a hard time getting food on the table to feed their families. Not only that, military housing remains in a sorry state (to say the least), medical centers are woefully inadequate in the treatment of the 9/11 Generation (whose primary cause of death is suicide, not combat!), civil-military relations are abysmal, and our All Volunteer Force is somehow expected to succeed in the field with old equipment and misaligned funds.
While there’s a nuanced conversation to be had about exactly how to target each of these systemic issues (and more), there’s one thing that could be done to improve things dramatically: Congress could deliver the Joint Chiefs the one thing that they keep asking for every single year: a predictable budget.
Yet, with the exception of fiscal year 2019, the Department of Defense has been scraping by on continuing resolutions since 2011! What’s that? Put simply, it means today’s problems can only be solved with yesterday’s budget, which was designed solely for yesterday’s problems.
Without a budget written by the House, edited by the Senate, and signed by the President, the Pentagon can’t innovate, modernize, or design new programs, and your taxpayer dollars are being wasted on outdated budgets that are hindering national security rather than bolstering it.
If you want to support those personnel wearing the uniform of our country today (never mind make proud the many veterans, like me, shaking our heads at today’s sorry state of affairs), it’s time to set aside the infighting and party-line, rank-and-file squabbling.
Our Armed Forces are struggling. They’re struggling to recruit, struggling to retain, struggling to keep food on tables, roofs over heads, or just to stay healthy with some quality of life. They’re struggling to keep equipment and initiatives in line with the mission objective of today’s landscape. This isn’t wasting taxpayers money on the military industrial complex. This is about the security of our uniformed personnel, and by extension, the security of our entire, ever-grateful nation.
When you hear your Representatives and Senators thanking the troops for their service, pick up the phone, hit “send” on an email, or write a letter asking them what they’re doing to end over a decade of continuing resolutions that actively put those troops in danger.
Then hold them accountable and make them prove it.
