Encore Supporting Today’s Veterans w/ George Casey and Joel Kupersmith

On this edition of Next Steps Forward, program host Chris Meek speaks with General George Casey and Dr. Joel Kupersmith, authors of “Supporting Veterans After 50 Years of the All-Volunteer Force and 20 Years of War: Ideas Moving Forward.” The goal of their book and their wider work is to begin the important discussion regarding how best to treat and serve the veterans of the all-volunteer military which will have existed in the United States for 50 years next year. Dr. Kupersmith, the current director of Georgetown University Veterans Initiatives and pioneer of the world’s largest health system genetic repository the Million Veteran Program, and General George Casey, a 41-year Army veteran and former commander of the Multi-National Force – Iraq, will discuss why veterans who volunteer for military service are different from those who were drafted and served, as well as the reasons that individuals are motivated to join our volunteer force to begin with. America’s all-volunteer force has resulted in a very capable military but as the audience will discover, the absence of compulsory service has taken a toll on the culture of national service and the idea that citizens in a democracy have responsibilities as well as rights.