There's a renewed call to get more American Legion members on this Veterans Day.
Declining American Legion numbers means it can be difficult to find an honor guard for military funerals.
Brandon Merano is an Air Force combat veteran and executive director of Illinois-based Operation Honor Guard.
"When I saw the look on my friend's wife's face when they presented the flag to her, and played Taps, and we did the flyover, and we had the rifle volley, even if you don't know the person, when you hear Taps, you get goosebumps," explains Merano. "I mean, every time. I don't want to live in a world where that's not available to veterans."
Christopher Sam at American Legion Post 1 in Minneapolis says there's a focus on recruiting more Global War on Terrorism veterans to the American Legion.
"We're trying to make our post into a place where people can go, where veterans can go and feel welcome, feel that brotherhood," Sam explains. "That's what's very important to me as far as trying to move and the historical aspect of our post. I would hate to see it fold after 107 years."
The issue is the age of the current members. Younger vets are not joining Legions at the same rate.
"Roughly just under 40% Vietnam veterans, and if you think about that group of veterans, that era of veterans, I think the average age is 79-years-old," Sam adds. "So, what we're seeing at our post is our membership is starting to age out."
Sam says they added just three new members last year.
"But that didn't even keep up with normal attrition," he adds. "This year, we've put on 11 so far. The membership year starts on July 1st. We've put on 11 since July 1st."
