Stopping the civilian-military drift

This is an article that appeared in USA Today around the 4th July this year. I believe the messages about the civilian-military drift are powerful and relevant throughout the year. Based on some positive feedback about the article, I want to share it with my LinkedIn network. 

While we commemorate our nation’s birthday just as President Adams espoused — from parades to fireworks, not to mention a few more contemporary traditions like barbecues, going to the beach, a shorter work week, and some big-time retail sales — it’s all too easy for us to forget the great sacrifices.

Yet for almost four million Americans among us, many of whom are millennials, July 4th does, indeed, have deeper meaning. They do not experience Independence Day as just a “patriotic holiday.” On this day, and indeed every day, service members often feel separate and apart from those of us who did not share, as Justice Holmes described it, “the incommunicable experience of war.”

That feeling of separation, not fear of combat or hardship, is the central challenge of military life. We ask young Americans to volunteer to put on the uniform, leave their loved ones behind, launch into adulthood, conduct themselves under a strict set of laws, and perform duties in distant lands that have no analog in civilian life and which they are often bound not to speak of or just don’t want to. While proud of their service, it is hardly a surprise they feel a separation from the rest of us.

And that feeling of separation is made worse by how rare they have become. Less than 1% of our fellow citizens serve in our active military today and only about 7% of Americans living today ever served, whether in wartime or peacetime. From the 1960s to the 1990s between 50 and 75% of Congress served in the military. Today that number is around 20% and declining. While most Americans today express sympathy for our veterans, few can have real empathy, the capacity to understand and feel the challenges they face and more importantly, the opportunity they represent.

This is not an argument to bring back the draft. The all-volunteer force is a success, but its success is not unalloyed.

This imperfection (and nothing is perfect) of the all-volunteer force manifests itself in what many now call the “civil-military divide.” I prefer the term civil-military drift, as a divide connotes discordance or even active opposition. On the contrary, Americans in large numbers hold the U.S. military in high esteem. A Gallup poll last year asked Americans to assess their confidence in various American institutions. Seventy-two percent of Americans expressed a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the military. By contrast the Presidency scored 33% and Congress below 10%. Of all institutions, including public schools, organized labor, churches, etc., the military had the highest ranking.

Thus this is not a divide, but it is a drift, resulting in an astonishing 90% of service members surveyed saying that the general public does not truly understand the sacrifices made by them and their families.

The impact of this drift is greater than not fully appreciating the sacrifices of our service members. A disproportionate percentage of today’s service men and women hail from military families. While 87% feel the military has prepared them to be a leader in the civilian workplace and nearly all are proud of their accomplishments during service, only 45% of today’s service members would recommend military service to their own child. If this is a long-term trend, its impact on our national security is clear: fewer capable young Americans willing to serve.

Bridging the civil-military drift is something each of us can do, and it doesn’t require a government program. All of us can learn something about our military and the people who serve in it. Visit an exhibit about the military, tour a base, watch a documentary, and take your children. Keep learning. Say something to service members, not just thanking them for their service, but finding ways to open a dialogue with those who live in your community. And do something. Find an organization that brings you closer to our military. Volunteer and support it. Get your business or church or service group involved. I guarantee you won’t regret the decision to do so.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz reflected on his “aha” moment in his book “For Love of Country”: “My visit [to West Point] revealed to me just how disconnected I had been from these fellow citizens who have dedicated years of their lives to defending the freedom I hold dear. No one in my family or my circle of friends was serving in the armed forces. I had never visited a military base. I had never spoken to anyone in uniform. As I look back, I’m embarrassed.” Schultz and his wife Sheri channeled that “embarrassment” into a calling to support veterans and transitioning active duty service members. Each of us can too.

This July 4th, while we spend time with family and enjoy a burger and hotdog in the backyard, we will also celebrate the less than 1% who protect our nation.

This article originally appeared in USA TODAY on July 2, 2016. You can follow J.D. Crouch on Twitter @JDCrouch2.