Veteran Policy Insights

Our colleagues across the pond have told us that UK veterans are seen as “mad, bad, and sad”—a pithy summary of the negative stereotypes that some members of the public may hold. Here in the United States, there are competing narratives, with veterans seen as either heroic assets to their communities or tragically burdened by the trauma of war. Surveys have also shown that trust in the military has fallen, as have military recruiting numbers. But what do Americans really think of veterans and military service? This month, we share findings from a nationally representative survey conducted through RAND’s American Life Panel that explored those perceptions more thoroughly. The result is a more nuanced picture than any quippy one-liner can capture.

In addition, we hope you enjoy the second in our series of conference proceedings on veterans’ transitions from military to civilian life. This one focuses on the periods immediately before and after veterans leave military service. (The first session examined how military service can shape posttransition outcomes.) Together, the two publications featured in this newsletter provide a compelling overview of the complex interplay of factors that shape military experiences, veteran outcomes, and how the public perceives both.

If you enjoy this newsletter, forward it to friends and encourage colleagues to catch up on their reading over the break and then subscribe here so they too can stay informed about developments in research, policy, and public discussions on veterans’ issues. Learn more about our published and ongoing work, as well as how to collaborate with us, at veterans.rand.org.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season,

Carrie M. Farmer and Rajeev Ramchand

Codirectors, RAND Epstein Family Veterans Policy Research Institute

Fiscal year 2022 was one of the worst U.S. military recruitment years on record, with all services apart from U.S. Space Force failing to meet their recruitment goals, and FY 2023 saw similar shortfalls. Although the public still generally holds the military in high esteem compared with other major institutions, that opinion is wavering, influenced by such factors as the end of the war in Afghanistan, increased polarization among the public, and heightened politicization of the military.

How do these trends in recruitment and confidence reflect public perceptions of the U.S. military? Do Americans’ views of veterans and the U.S. military influence whether they would recommend a military career to young people? RAND researchers posed these and other questions to the RAND American Life Panel to gather insights into how Americans think about these issues. They found that the public thinks very highly of U.S. veterans; the vast majority of survey participants agreed with positive stereotypes and disagreed with negative ones. However, more than half would discourage a young person close to them from enlisting—and the more negatively they viewed veterans, the more likely they were to discourage service.

What Americans Think About Veterans and Military Service: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey

How smoothly a service member transitions out of the military can have significant implications for their life trajectory. The RAND Epstein Family Veterans Policy Research Institute hosted the second of four veteran policy roundtables with subject-matter experts to discuss issues and propose solutions to improve veterans’ experiences in the period from one year prior to one year after leaving military service. Four themes emerged from the conversation: (1) responsibility for transitions (which agencies or individuals are responsible for a veteran’s transition, what it means to be “responsible,” and the role of the individual, the family, and the country at large), (2) transition pathways (each veteran’s transition will look different, depending on why they are leaving the military, their years of service and rank, and other factors), (3) support mechanisms (the importance of transition support that meets a veteran’s unique needs and outreach to ensure that veterans are aware of these services and how to access them), and (4) the effectiveness of transition support (the question of who is responsible for veterans’ transition success makes it challenging to identify metrics for how well the transition process serves veterans’ needs).

“If Everyone Is Responsible, Then No One Is”: Proceedings from a Roundtable on Factors That Affect Veterans’ Transitions from Military to Civilian Life

Recently, the House of Representatives passed several bills to improve support for veterans and referred them to the Senate:

• Caregiver Outreach and Program Enhancement (COPE) Act would authorize VA to award grants to implement, coordinate, or enhance mental health counseling and support for family caregivers of veterans enrolled in the family caregiver program. (Read about RAND’s original Military Caregivers Study.)
• Housing Our Military Veterans Effectively (HOME) Act would make it easier for VA to increase per diem payments for services provided to homeless veterans through FY 2026. (Read RAND’s longitudinal study of veterans experiencing homelessness and new findings on veterans’ housing cost burden.)
• Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act would increase coverage for noninstitutional nursing care, direct VA to expand home and community-based services, and implement a pilot program to provide homemaker and home health aide services to veterans in communities with a home health aide shortage. (Read RAND’s research on home and community-based services.)
• Successful Entrepreneurship for Reservists and Veterans Act would require the Small Business Administration to submit a report to Congress on plans to promote programs for veterans and would require the U.S. Comptroller General to submit a report on the ability of veterans, spouses, and reservists to access credit for their small businesses. (Read RAND’s evaluation of one entrepreneurial fellowship program, Dog Tag Inc.)

• Codirector Rajeev Ramchand testified before the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health about psychedelics. Watch the full hearing or read his testimony, read a deep-dive on the topic on the RAND Blog, and check out some of the extensive coverage of the hearing from traditional, public media, and military- and veteran-focused news outlets.
• Veterans and RAND researchers Kayla Williams and Kyleanne Hunter shared their thoughts on survey findings that there is a generational divide in reactions to “Thank you for your service.”
• Researcher Lynsay Ayer presented at the Bob Woodruff Foundation’s virtual event Straight Talk: How Community Members and Organizations Can Support Veteran Mental Health.
• The American Psychiatric Association cited RAND research in an article about how veterans benefit from culturally competent care.
• The Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute cited RAND research in a white paper on rural veterans’ health care.
• VA’s 2023 report on veteran suicides used both direct and indirect data adjustment to compare the suicide rates of veterans and nonveterans, citing RAND work on the utility of indirect standardization. Task & Purpose quoted Rajeev in an article about VA’s report, focusing on the increase in suicides among young women veterans.
• Researcher Megan Schuler was quoted in a piece about mental health support for student veterans in Iowa.
• Codirector Carrie Farmer, RAND Europe’s Ed Bryan and Linda Slapakova, and Mary Keeling of the RAND collaborative Forces in Mind Trust Research Centre participated in the Canadian Institute for Military Veteran Health Research Forum in Ottawa in October.
• Kayla Williams reviewed the book Forgotten Warriors for ARMY Magazine.

Stay tuned for more information about our next webinar, which will focus on why policymakers, advocates, providers, and the public should care about how Americans perceive veterans and military service and will be held on January 18 at 4pm EST / 1pm PST.