The 21st century has brought nearly unimaginable change to our society, creating gaps between my generation, and, say, Gen Alpha, that sometimes seem unbridgeable. Video calls are the norm; screens replace paper; routine work tasks can be completed with fewer (or no) people in record time and with huge data demands; and the digital natives born in this century have little concept of the analog world that preceded this one.
It’s also changed in the military and Veteran community. Fifty years after the elimination of the draft, the all-volunteer military force in the United States is highly trained, diverse, representing some of the best our country has to offer. It is a uniquely isolated culture and is often a familial one; young people join the military most often because one or both of their parents did, or a sibling, or other close relative.
Because of this, the lack of a draft that once brought a common military experience to a wide cross-section of American young people, replaced by a recruiting process heavily reliant on family ties, most Americans don’t understand military culture, military servicemembers, or Veterans…