New York Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan said the fact that only 1% of Americans serve in the U.S. military is “very problematic as a democracy.”
In an interview with CBS’s Face The Nation ahead of Memorial Day, Ryan, a U.S. Army veteran, said, “When you lose touch between those who fight our wars and their families and everyone else, it’s something so vital that we have to figuring out how to bring people together and get more people serving.”
Ryan, who has served two tours in Iraq, said he is working to recruit more Americans to serve in the military.
Speaking to Republican Florida Representative and Army veteran Mike Waltz, Ryan said: “A lot of the work we’ve done … on the defense bill has been recruiting. Every service has been challenged in terms of recruiting numbers and we have given some guidance to say that this is not acceptable to the Department of Defense. And we’re starting to see the numbers come out.”
According to Waltz, “service doesn’t have to be just in the military,” as he said that both he and Ryan are in favor of “returning us as a country to national service.”
“That’s not conscription, that doesn’t necessarily have to be in uniform,” he said, adding: “It could be the national park, inner-city tutoring, elderly care. But how do we get young people out into an environment where they learn leadership, discipline and followership, serving a cause bigger than themselves and with fellow Americans who may not look or have the same background as them.”
The two representatives also spoke about the need for bipartisanship when it comes to supporting veterans. For Ryan, the “most powerful thing he has done in his time in Congress since taking office in 2023 was cleaning the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with other veterans.”
“I mean, there are so many divisive forces out there, and so to come together with fellow veterans, all services, all generations, and just actually do something with your hands that makes the world a better place, that honors our veterans,” Ryan said .
Waltz echoed Ryan’s sentiments, saying, “I saw the bitterness and the infighting and I said, ‘You know what, let’s get a group of veterans together’… I think it’s important for the American people to see it . To see us honor our ancestors, to see us true Democrat, Republican, black, white, brown, none of that matters. It just matters that we are all Americans, we are all veterans.”
There are currently more than 18 million veterans representing 6% of the country’s adult population. According to the Pew Research Center, veterans who served within the last thirty years make up the largest number of living veterans in the US.
In 1980, about 18% of American adults were veterans. In 2022, that number dropped to 6%. The center cites the downward trend toward a decrease in active-duty personnel after the end of military service in 1973.
The center also reports that as the number of veterans declines over the next 25 years, women, Hispanic and Black adults, and adults under the age of 50 will make up a larger share of the total U.S. veteran population.
