Flipping the Script: Support for Today's Veterans Should Not Come at Yesterday's Expense

BY James McCormick II, Executive Director, VVA Government Affairs Department

When lawmakers discuss veterans’ issues, the script has become painfully predictable. The focus is almost always on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, traumatic brain injury, and improvised explosive devices. These challenges are real and deserve attention. But they are not new. They have existed since modern warfare evolved.

I am a Cold War, Gulf War, and Iraq War veteran. My service spans multiple eras. I am speaking from lived experience—and from a growing concern that generational lines are dividing an already shrinking veteran population. These are difficult conversations, but they are necessary.

The reality is that, by focusing exclusively on the problems facing one generation, Congress has created an unintended hierarchy for veterans. In that hierarchy, millions of Americans who wore the uniform before September 11, 2001, have been pushed quietly to the margins.

The numbers do not lie. Of the approximately 18 million veterans living in the United States today, nearly 12 million served before 9/11 during the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Persian Gulf War. Yet when congressional hearings are convened and legislation drafted, these veterans are routinely absent from the conversation, overshadowed by more recent conflicts that dominate media narratives and political attention.

This imbalance is not merely symbolic. It has real and lasting consequences.

Jenny Kane/AP

Vietnam War veterans continue to suffer from the long-term effects of Agent Orange exposure. Cold War veterans were exposed to radiation, contaminated water, and toxic sites long before the Department of Defense acknowledged such risks. Gulf War veterans fought for decades to have Gulf War Illness even recognized. Yet advocacy efforts and funding priorities remain disproportionately focused on the so-called “signature wounds” of modern conflicts, as if toxic exposure and delayed-onset illness somehow began in 2001.

Aging veterans face rising housing insecurity, age-related health challenges, and employment difficulties as they transition into retirement. They meet barriers created by a VA system increasingly dependent on digital platforms many older veterans were never trained to use. These problems are not lesser—they are simply less visible.

What makes this especially troubling is that today’s post-9/11 veterans benefit directly from battles fought by those who came before them.

Vietnam War veterans forced the government to recognize PTSD as a legitimate medical condition, leading to its inclusion in the DSM-III in 1980. Gulf War veterans fought relentlessly for recognition of toxic exposure and unexplained illness, laying the groundwork for today’s toxic-exposure legislation. These veterans did not just fight for themselves—they fought for generations they would never meet. Yet that legacy is rarely acknowledged.

Part of the problem is visibility. Post-9/11 veterans—including myself—have had two decades of sustained media coverage and public sympathy. In contrast, Vietnam War, Cold War, and Gulf War service has faded significantly from the national consciousness, often remembered— if at all—through outdated or incomplete narratives.

There is also a dangerous assumption embedded in modern advocacy: that recent wars represent a fundamentally different type of service and one that requires fundamentally different care. Warfare evolves—but sacrifice does not. A soldier on the DMZ, a sailor submerged on a Cold War submarine, or a Marine exposed to toxins in the Persian Gulf made commitments no less profound than those who deployed to Fallujah or Kandahar.

This is not a call to reduce support for post-9/11 veterans. It is a demand that advocacy reflect reality. Congressional hearings must include veterans of all eras. Legislation must be evaluated for its impact on aging veterans, not just the newest ones. Improving quality of life for aging veterans—and making aging with dignity the norm must be a national priority. Ensuring a future that does not become harder with age should be America’s commitment to those who served.

Every veteran signed a blank check to the nation—payable up to and including their life. Congress has rightly recognized the importance of veterans advocacy. Now it must ensure that recognition extends to all who answered the call, not just those whose service fits today’s political narrative.

The 12 million pre-9/11 veterans are still here. They are still watching. And they are still waiting for their turn to matter. We must do better and must stop dividing our veterans by eras and combat vs. non-combat service.

Rest assured that VVA will continue our mission into the future to ensure we live up to our Founding Principle: Never Again Will One Generation of Veterans Abandon Another.

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