Veterans Day 2025: The Pattern We Need to Recognize

From the Bonus Army to today's Senate hearings, the question is always the same: Do veterans really deserve what they were promised?

On Veterans Day, we honor those who stood ready at the gate. Who kissed their families goodbye and took their place in defense of this country. Who served in combat and who served standing watch, all of them part of the force that kept us safe.

But there’s another American tradition that runs alongside the parades and proclamations. Every decade or so, when the bill comes due for veterans’ care and compensation, someone steps forward to ask: Do they really deserve it?

This isn’t new. This is the pattern.

Summer 1932: The Bonus Army

They were World War I veterans, promised bonuses for their service. When the Depression hit, they marched on Washington to ask for what they’d been promised early. They set up camps. They brought their families. They asked Congress to keep its word.

Bonus Army encampment, Washington D.C., 1932. WWI veterans and their families camped in the capital asking Congress to honor promised bonuses. On July 28, the U.S. Army attacked with tear gas and cavalry, then burned…