Fort Wayne, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) – Nearly 2.5 million men and women have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 11-years.

But the nation’s largest veterans service organization, the American Legion, is finding it somewhat challenging to get those soldiers to become members.

The organization’s National Commander, Jim Koutz, visited the Summit City earlier in the week and spoke about efforts being made to bring this new generation of veterans into the fold.Commander Koutz says, “They just need to know the benefits that the American Legion has and the things that we do through the VA for them. We’ll be getting these younger veterans in, but it will just take a little time. They’ll join our organization, because they’ll know the good things that we do.”

Koutz says Vietnam War veterans are joining in the highest numbers right now and young veterans have a lot of other priorities when they return home like family, college and careers
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