The merger of two Connecticut VFW posts and the ebbing health of another are the most recent signs of state veterans organizations’ ongoing struggles to retain members and remain financially stable.
Darien VFW Post 6933 has about 120 members on the books, but gathering half a dozen members for an official quorum has been tough, said Scott VanDerheyden, who was post commander until recently. Also, income from all sources is not meeting expenses needed to keep the organization’s building open, VanDerheyden said.
“I know we’re in financial trouble right now,” the U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Gulf War said.
The nation’s 18 million veterans comprise about 6 percent of the population, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Of Connecticut’s 3.6 million residents, about 172,000, or 4.8 percent, are military veterans, including about 126,000 wartime veterans. Of the total in Connecticut, approximately 14,000 are females and 158,000 are males, according to the federal agency.
The nation’s total veteran population is predicted to decline from 20.8 million in 2015 to 12 million in 2045. Veterans organization leaders say they welcome the relative peace that has reigned since the devastating wars of the 20th century, but at the same time, they seek younger veterans to maintain the comradeship and community service that have sustained their ranks for more than 100 years.
Consolidation has been a key to the VFW’s survival in Connecticut. In April, Waterbury Post 201 merged with Naugatuck Post 1946. The Naugatuck post lacked a building, and maintaining membership was becoming more difficult, Post 201 Commander Al Comeau said. The majority of members are Vietnam veterans, said Comeau, 77, himself a U.S. Army veteran of that war.
Statewide, the VFW counted about 10,000 members in fiscal year 2023-24, about the same as in the previous fiscal year, state Commander Stanley Borusiewicz said. About half of the membership is Vietnam veterans, while most of the others are veterans of the Gulf War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few World War II members remain, but of the 16.4 million people who served in that most consequential and fatal war, only 119,550 survived as of 2023. In Connecticut, about 2,059 WWII veterans were alive last year, according to the National World War II Museum.
VFW leaders are always looking for new members and young veterans, Borusiewicz said. One strategy is to host family gatherings. Danbury members, for example, have a family potluck dinner every Friday night, he said.
The biggest problem, Borusiewicz said, is persuading people to take leadership positions, one of the chief reasons behind the decline of the Naugatuck post. He also noted the merger in 2021 of the West Hartford and New Britain posts. As in Darien, the West Hartford post was having trouble filling a quorum of five needed to hold monthly meetings. The post sold its building at 83 South St. and merged with New Britain’s VFW Post 511. VFW members in Manchester also had to sell their building about eight years ago because they could not meet the cost of roof, siding, and other repairs.
Comeau and Borusiewicz gave different numbers for the total membership of the combined posts in Waterbury and Naugatuck. Comeau put the total at 343, but Borusiewicz said it was actually about 445. In any case, Comeau described the post as “robust,” with a constantly rented hall, a canteen open to the public, and a welcome mat always out for new members. One of his goals, Comeau said, is to reach out to veterans in the surrounding Naugatuck Valley to boost the post’s roll call.
Along with comradeship and guidance about veterans’ benefits, veterans organizations also lobby in the state and nation to benefit veterans and their families. Still, according to a report in The Atlantic in 2021, the American Legion’s membership declined by nearly 23 percent in the past 20 years, and since 1992, the VFW’s ranks dropped by almost half.
The American Legion in Connecticut has about 17,000 members in 140 posts, organization adjutant Harry R. “Butch” Hansen said. The Legion is “holding its own,” he said, but part of the ongoing challenge is one that affects all civic organizations: people are not as social as they once were.
“Today’s generation doesn’t feel the need to join a group,” he said.
In the meantime, older members (about 70 percent of the Legion’s members in Connecticut are Vietnam veterans, Hansen said) are passing away and not being fully replaced. The organization has had some of the same struggles as the VFW with closed and merging posts, said Hansen, a 35-year U.S. Air Force veteran of multiple Middle Eastern campaigns.
“We always worry about numbers … We have our ups and downs,” he said.
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