Having just 1% of Americans serving in the military is "deeply problematic" for the nation and represents "societal problem," said two lawmakers who served.
In an interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Rep. Mike Waltz of R-Fla., and Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., discussed the loss of fellow soldiers overseas.
"Survivor's guilt is a very real thing," Waltz said of the death of a fellow soldier in Afghanistan. "Why him and not me? He was my responsibility, as were the other Green Berets that I didn't bring home. And I just tell myself, I look in the mirror every time — every morning before I go into the Capitol — and tell myself to be worthy, be worthy of that sacrifice."
Waltz said "our charge" as elected leaders "is to comport ourselves in a way that's worthy of their sacrifice in front of the American people."
Ryan recounted a similar loss of "one of my soldiers who I brought home from my first 12 month deployment and then tragically succumbed to the invisible wounds of war and took his own life."
"When you lose touch between those that are fighting our wars and their families and everyone else, that's something so essential that we have to figure out how to bring folks together, and get more folks serving," Ryan said.
"We're not doing enough," he added. "We don't have the urgency. It needs to be a national problem. It needs to be a problem that every American recognizes as theirs, because these are the small percentage of the American people who have put their life on the line and ultimately given their life. It's such a small percentage. It's about 1%."
To Waltz, "service doesn't just have to be in the military," saying he and Ryan are advocates of "getting us back to national service as a country."
"That's not a draft, that doesn't necessarily have to be in uniform," Waltz said, adding: "It could be with the national park, inner-city tutoring, elderly care."
Waltz and Ryan also spoke of the need for bipartisanship when it comes to supporting veterans. For Ryan, the "most powerful thing" he has done in his time in Congress since he assumed office in 2023 was cleaning the Vietnam Veterans Memorial alongside other veterans.
"I saw the acrimony and the in-fighting and I said, 'You know, let's get a group of veterans together'… I think that's important for the American people to see," Waltz said. "To see us honoring our forefathers, to see us where Democrat, Republican, Black, white, brown, none of that matters. It just matters that we're all Americans, we're all veterans."
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