Community Corner

9/11 Brings New Generation to Lake Washington VFW Post #2995

A new generation of combat veterans in their 20s and 30s, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, find both assistance and ways to serve the community at the Lake Washington VFW Post #2995

A decade ago, Friday nights at the Lake Washington VFW Post #2995 in Redmond looked like this: Some dancing. A little drinking. Veterans and spouses sitting for dinner at the post’s bar while swapping stories about retirement and visits with grandchildren.

And while some of this remains the same, longtime members have heard new conversations in recent years.

There's talk of college or training, of dealing with new jobs and homes and starting families and Facebook pages.

Find out what's happening in Kirklandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the Veterans of Foreign Wars has absorbed a new generation of veterans who are eligible to join – the men and women in their 20s and 30s who have served in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Regardless of age, everyone here is a comrade, as Bellevue resident and Air Force veteran Andrew Baker, 30, says.

Find out what's happening in Kirklandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“They welcomed me with open arms – ‘Let’s buy you a drink!’  -- and they told me to come back any time,” said Baker, a three-year member of Post #2995, which serves vets from Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue and around the Eastside.

The veteran advocacy organization was founded at the start of the 20th century to push for the rights and welfare of thousands of veterans who returned from overseas wars, specifically the Spanish-American War and combat in the Philippines. Many had returned with injuries and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and they struggled to deal with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VFW was established to help returning veterans with those issues, with direct assistance and policy advocacy.

Membership in the VFW was and is reserved to those who have faced combat in a foreign war. The posts have long resisted changing this requirement even as the membership aged and began to die, said Corky Berthiaume, state adjutant for the Washington state VFW.

“That was discussed for many, many years, and it has always been almost unanimous not to change it,” Berthiaume said. “We’re not saying we’re better than people who didn’t serve in a foreign war. We share a commonality," he said.

"We share something that only people who have been in combat can relate to,” he said.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, led to two foreign wars. And this, in turn, created a new generation of men and women eligible for VFW membership and services.

According to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an assistance and advocacy group, more than 2.2 million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. That is not as many as the number who served in Vietnam or World War II, but it exceeds the number of veterans who served in Operation Desert Storm.

Jim Weaver, commander of the Lake Washington VFW Post #2995, said that veterans' concerns have stayed the same throughout the different foreign wars.

“Twenty-thousand veterans last year lost their homes to foreclosure. PTSD is at an all-time high,” Weaver said.

The VFW has long had programs to help veterans deal with those issues, including mental health counselors, people who can help with navigating the Veterans Affairs and coordinating financial assistance for veterans who need it.

The Lake Washington VFW also organizes service groups who send care packages to troops still deployed, honor guards for ceremonies and fundraisers for scholarships for returning veterans.

Berthiaume said posts throughout the state are seeing more young members who seek the services of the VFW and the camaraderie, the mentorship and assistance from older veterans. They seek people who share their experiences.

For example, many 20- and 30-something veterans are just now adjusting to entering the workforce -- something that many in their age group experienced years ago. Some estimates put young veteran unemployment at 25 percent, Berthiaume said.

“We’re offering scholarships to colleges and universities,” he said. “We’re helping with unemployment.”

Baker, who enlisted right after 9/11 and served for six years in the Air Force, including in Afghanistan and four tours in Iraq, said he immediately was greeted as a brother by older veterans at the Lake Washington VFW when he first walked in three years ago.

This wasn't the case everywhere in his immediate post-military life in Bellevue, where Baker had moved to join his brother. Baker didn’t find an immediate connection with the programmers and tech workers that were his brother’s colleagues and friends, who had been to college and the workplace while he was deployed.

So, he wandered into the Lake Washington VFW Post #2995 to see what it was about.

“It was packed full of people dancing and eating,” he said.

The older vets not only welcomed Baker, they employed him as a bartender for a time. They encouraged him when he enrolled at Bellevue College, where he also started a veterans organization for college students.

“I learned of all the resources (the VFW posts) have,” Baker said, including assistance with using the GI Bill to pay for school, and dealing with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Lake Washington post also served as his support system when his brother died suddenly several years ago.

“I truly have a family here,” Baker said.

Army veteran Richard Silva, 29, joined about a year ago as a lifetime member so he could forge connections to the local area as he studied at DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond after being discharged.

The older veterans are very established in the community and are helpful to the younger vets, he said.

"It's a good crowd of people to know and to get connected to," Silva said.

The younger veterans have also brought in younger members of the auxiliary, who are people who support the VFW's programs and mission, but did not serve in combat overseas. Today, there are 30 to 40 veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan among Lake Washington’s VFW ranks.

VFW Posts around the state have encouraged younger veterans to take on leadership roles, said Berthiaume.

Some Vietnam veterans felt that the VFW did not welcome them when they returned from service 40 years ago, and many VFW members are determined to treat Iraq and Afghanistan veterans better than the way they were treated, he said.

“We want them to know they are the future of the organization,” Berthiaume said.

Lake Washington's Weaver pointed out that the teaching, assistance and mentorship at Lake Washington VFW Post #2995 isn't one-way. Younger members have introduced older VFW members to unfamiliar territory such as karaoke parties, smart phones and Facebook. They helped the older veterans redesign the website.

“We enjoy having them,” Weaver said. “They keep us young.”

----

For a series of snapshots and stories from Patch sites around America about how 9/11 has affected people’s lives, click here.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Kirkland