With widening military-civilian gap, a call for renewed support on Veterans Day

Friday Nov. 11 is Veterans Day. It is always Nov. 11, held on the anniversary of the armistice with Germany that ended World War I.

But while the date on which veterans are recognized has stayed the same, the extent to which their service is understood has not.

The nonpartisan Pew Research Center calls it the military-civilian gap. A smaller share of Americans serves in the military than at any time since the interwar period. Fewer families have connections to veterans. Fewer children understand what it means to have a relative in uniform. The result, according to Pew, is a growing divide between service members and civilians.

On Friday, in towns and cities across the state and country, local officials, veterans and their families will hold parades, lunches and memorial services in recognition of members of the armed forces.

The parades the most public of recognition events have seen a notable decline in attendance, said Tom Belton, Springfields veterans services director.

The problem were experiencing is that you have more participants in the parade than spectators, he said in August. We dont want to browbeat anyone, but it seems theyve forgotten the veterans and the families of veterans.

His goal: to pump up Springfield and draw residents out to the parade on Friday in a renewed show of support for veterans. The parade sets off at 11 a.m. from Springfield Technical Community College, travels down State Street, onto Main Street, to Court Street and ends in front of City Hall.

A lot of veterans march to remember what it was like, Belton said. Its the one day they can put on their boots and ribbons, dig in their heels and march. Its special to them.

Thomas M. Belton, director of the Department of Veterans Services of Springfield. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)

In a 2011 Pew survey, more than three-quarters of adults over age 50 said they had an immediate family member who served in the military. Many of those family members served before the draft was phased out in 1973, Pew determined.

For adults ages 30 to 49 at the time, 57% had immediate relatives who served in uniform. Only about a third of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 could say the same.

There is a widely held perception among both veterans and civilians that the public does not understand the problems faced by those in the military, Pew concluded. Seventy-seven percent of veterans and 71% of the general public expressed this idea in Pews survey.

Attending events like the Veterans Day parade is a meaningful acknowledgment, Belton said.

We want the public to understand the importance of attending these events for veterans who went out to secure the freedoms they enjoy, he said. Veterans Day is very important. Its not just a day off from school.