Old Soldiers Win New Recruits

Like most chapters, Post 1 had thrived for years, but by the early 2000s, membership had dwindled. "We weren't getting enough people at the meetings for a quorum, which is five people," says Michael Mitchel, 48, the post commander. Mired in debt, the chapter began recruiting younger members.

VFW posts are trying new things to attract younger members. Vets can bond at a weekly yoga class at Post 1 in Denver.

Benjamin Rasmussen

That reflected a national trend in which veterans groups have sought to arrest decline by reaching out to a new generation — with promising, but not yet conclusive, results.

Some VFW chapters, like Post 4534 in Rockledge, Fla., have gone smoke free, and some have gotten rid of their bars altogether, to focus more on family-friendly activities. Post 3199, in Modesto, Calif., is building a playground, and Post 12153 in Greenwood, Ind., has an exercise room. To promote activities and appeal to younger veterans, many posts have embraced social media.

Denver's Post 1 has been among the most aggressive in changing to survive. In 2014, Post 1 moved into a former gallery in Denver's hip arts district. There are photography and acting classes, yoga and tai chi. "We're the hub of the veteran community in Denver," Mitchel says. "If we can't help you, we'll put you on the right spoke." Membership, which had dropped to 800, has climbed to 1,100. And it's not just younger veterans; many new members served in Vietnam, and are giving the VFW a chance for the first time.

But reinvention isn't easy, as Dan Shoemaker learned when he took over Post 4267 in Gunnison, Colo. After being medically retired from the Army due to injuries sustained in Iraq, he joined the VFW and found quick camaraderie. Within months, a World War II veteran nominated Shoemaker, 36, to lead the post. "We need guys your age to start moving up the ranks," Shoemaker was told.

"I did spaghetti dinners, fish fries, family nights," Shoemaker says. To Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the area, he pitched the VFW as a relaxed environment where they could have conversations with their brothers and sisters in arms. But just two of 20 young veterans he spoke with joined. The post kept losing money, and closed in 2014.

As VFW posts die off, newer veterans are worse off for it, losing the chance to draw on older veterans' experiences.

Russell Attema served two tours in Vietnam with the Army Rangers. Afterward, he told few people that he had been to war. Only later, when he joined the American Legion in the 1990s, did he realize the benefit of shared experience among veterans. "Same mud, same blood," he says. "There's no way to explain what you're dealing with to someone who hasn't worn the uniform."

Since joining Post 1 six years ago, he's tried to help younger veterans learn from his experiences. "They need to know that things are going to be OK," says Attema, who is 65. "I've had a number of conversations with guys from Iraq and Afghanistan, and I'll be bawling in the corner with them."

The post's Vietnam veterans are among the most welcoming to younger members. "We didn't get any parades when we came home," says John Holland, 68, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam. When he joined the VFW in 1984, he wasn't welcomed by the World War II and Korea vets. "We're not going to see it happen again," Holland says. He takes pride in the post's embrace of female and gay veterans. "If you're eligible to be a member, you're welcome here."

Bartges, who now serves as the post's senior vice commander, found camaraderie with older members: "It gives you a sense of where you've been and where you come from."

Ray Starkey, one of Bartges' friends, is Post 1's oldest member at 94. He joined in 1951. Back then, membership topped 2,000. More recently, he worried that the post would just fade away. But now, as he sits in a chair on a recent evening watching younger members in animated conversations, he smiles and says, "It's getting stronger. We need them."

Brian Mockenhaupt is a former Army infantryman who served two tours in Iraq.

Video: Career of Courage - Col. Frederick Lough joined the US Army Medical Corps Reserves at 58 and was deployed twice to Afghanistan where he performed hundreds of surgeries in tents.