Gap growing between military and civilians

Two recent news stories speak volumes about the American veteran experience. And, contrary to expectations, neither is about suicides, post-traumatic stress disorder, or traumatic brain injury.

Following the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens, the U.S. Supreme Court began its first term since at least World War II without a veteran on the bench. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal was caught fabricating military experience in Vietnam.

These stories reflect a paradox: American civilians continue to love what veterans represent - duty, sacrifice, strength, leadership - but we have less and less true understanding of the veteran experience. Although the United States is in the 10th year of a war, veterans have become increasingly marginalized, accounting for a dwindling share of middle-class and public life.

Justice Stevens' departure was a dramatic if overlooked example of the quiet disappearance of veterans from many powerful and prestigious positions. Since the end of the Vietnam War, in fact, the number of military veterans in Congress has fallen by roughly two-thirds (notwithstanding this year's crop of actual veteran candidates). Today, only 25 of our 100 U.S. senators are veterans, compared with 69 four decades ago. The proportion in the House has fallen from 75 percent in 1971 to 22 percent today.

The war in Afghanistan recently became the longest in U.S. history, so this disappearance of veterans can't be explained as a consequence of fewer or shorter wars. Rather, it's largely the result of the continued downsizing of American military forces and the end of the draft following Vietnam.

During World War II, 16 million troops were mobilized at a time when the U.S. population was roughly 140 million. In the Vietnam era, about 3.5 million were deployed (and more than 6 million served) when the population was nearly 200 million. Today, fewer than 2 million service members have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan from a population of more than 310 million.

So, since World War II, the proportion of the populace deployed to a recent war has dropped from about 11 percent to less than 1 percent. No wonder veterans refer to themselves as "the less than 1 percent."