Honoring our heroes and helping our country

After more than three decades of service in the U.S. Army, retiring as a major general, I have had the unique perspective to see the profound impact of policy decisions Congress makes, from both the battlefield perspective and from the halls of power in Washington.

I regret the lack of veteran leadership in those halls of power to help shape policy decisions. This lack of veteran leadership in Congress does not serve our country well.

{mosads}That is why we at the Vet Voice Foundation have committed our organization to the first-of-its-kind veterans fellowship on Capitol Hill. The Vet Voice Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization with more than 450,000 veteran and veteran family members, with the mission to provide a platform for our members to influence domestic and foreign policy formulation.

There are more than 2.5 million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars returning home from overseas deployment. Many recognize how decisions made in Congress greatly impact and have long-lasting effects on their lives as well as the lives of their family and friends. At the same time, they see the lowest percentage of veterans in Congress in generations. In short, their experience is underrepresented. 

The most recent statistics provided by the Congressional Research Service show that only 98 out of 6,060 congressional staff members on Capitol Hill are veterans. Recognizing this reality, we set out to assist veterans interested in gaining experience and actively impacting policy by using their hard-won practical and unique skills, and powerful leader talent, by awarding highly competitive paid fellowships.

For years, congressional offices have expressed a desire to add veterans to their team, but veterans’ lack of Hill experience has been an obstacle. The goal of our program is to ensure that by paying our veterans a living wage, they can financially afford to accept positions in congressional offices, at no cost to that office, and to add a veteran’s voice to their policy team. 

So we set out to recruit, train, support and place veterans in congressional offices for a nine-month period, in order to build a bench of high-quality veterans who are experienced in how Congress works and who understand how public and foreign policy is developed, authorized and executed.

Thanks to a generous gift from the Corvias Foundation, we now have our first class of fellows in the offices of Sens. Sherrod Brown, Joni Ernst, Chris Murphy, Joe Manchin and Joe Donnelly. Thanks to the opportunity these senators gave our veterans, they are now gaining experience to be better positioned to develop their careers. This is not only benefiting these five veterans but also the offices they are working in and the country they are once again serving — this time in a suit, not a uniform. 

As this fellowship has already shown, 21st century veterans are a great asset to members of Congress and provide first-hand accounts that are helpful in developing legislation and programs that support our veterans and members of the armed forces and in the development of national security policy.

This is truly a win-win. Our returning veterans get valuable work experience and our nation’s leaders get to hear the perspective of a veteran as they shape foreign and domestic policy.  

Eaton served more than 30 years in the U.S. Army, including combat and post-combat assignments in Iraq, Bosnia and Somalia. He currently serves as managing director of Vet Voice, a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan foundation that helps veterans become leaders in our nation’s democracy through participation in the civic process.