As the nation prepares to observe Veterans Day this year, USAA hopes to challenge the nation to go beyond simple gratitude to create real, positive impacts in the veteran community. A new survey sponsored by USAA reveals disparities between young military/veterans and their older counterparts in how they prefer to be recognized for their service. The survey was conducted by Endeavor Analytics and YouGov.
Of note, nearly 70% of younger military/veterans say they feel uncomfortable or awkward when someone says “Thank you for your service” to them. Conversely, only 24% of military/veterans aged 65+ say they feel uncomfortable or awkward when someone says the phrase to them.
“This data shows that military service members and our veterans want Americans to go beyond small talk to connect with them on a deeper level, including learning more about their service, honoring each veteran’s service in ways in which they feel comfortable talking about it,” said retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert F. Whittle, Jr., SVP, chief of staff at USAA.
In response to these findings, this Veterans Day, USAA is introducing a new campaign hosted at USAA.com/veteransday that encourages Americans to “Go Beyond Thanks” to honor our military and veterans by going beyond simple gratitude to create real, positive impacts in the community this holiday and every day.
This approach also encourages conversations about mental wellness, asking for help and veteran suicide prevention to break stigmas around such topics. USAA sees a connection between having such meaningful conversations and the veteran suicide prevention initiative Face the Fight™ that USAA launched with founding partners Humana and Reach Resilience, an Endeavors Foundation.
The survey also found that older military/veterans are 76% more likely than the younger generation to connect with each other in person on the holiday, with younger military/veterans preferring to connect via social media.
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