WILMINGTON- Memorial Day is a holiday that commemorates all women and men who died in military service. One of its traditions is the Memorial Day parade. The Wilmington Memorial Day parade draws hundreds of people every year and is filled with colorful military displays, local bands and bugle corps, community groups, and veterans organizations.

The American Legion always has a presence in Wilmington’s Memorial Day parade. But this year, the Legion was scrambling at the last minute to find veterans and servicemen who could walk in the parade. Wilmington isn’t alone. Finding current servicemen and veterans to participate and join the American Legion has been difficult in many parts of the country. Some military officials believe that may have to do with the generation gap between today’s servicemen and veterans of past conflicts.

Clayton Clark, Veterans Services Director of the Vermont Office of Veterans Affairs, is one of the guest speakers at this year’s Memorial Day parade. Clark says it’s not so much a problem of recruitment, but rather that servicemen and veterans from today’s military involvements have different ways of expressing themselves. Clark believes parades may not appeal as much as they did with prior generations. “Veterans of old believed it was very important to have a social outlet with other veterans. I’m not sure if the current generation of servicemen wants the same kind of social outlet with other veterans,” said Clark.

The American Legion’s national membership records show that membership grew from 843,016 in 1920 to over 2.6 million members in 2009. Membership reached its peak in 1990 with over three million members but the numbers have declined since then.

According to Joseph March, of the American Legion, although membership has been relatively stable over the past two decades at 2.6 to 2.7 million members, there could be a number of reasons why numbers may be lower than they once were.

One of the factors may be geographical. March said as veterans get older, they tend to move elsewhere. American Legion posts also move from town to town or disband and relocate. Other reasons may be economic. March said some posts, such as those in rural areas, see a decline in membership due to a lack of economic opportunities. “The younger generation may end up working for corporations in a big city and you lose potential members to join the post,” said March. “A lot of posts allowed smoking and laws are being proposed to not permit it in clubs. The younger vets are more family oriented and heavy smoking is not conducive to families.”

Despite the lower numbers, March said the American Legion is evolving with changes to recruit new members. Today, the American Legion is integrating more family issues to make the Legion a more family-friendly environment. One area of growth is “cyberposts.” March said the American Legion has taken advantage of the Internet and many servicemen and veterans are meeting there rather than belonging to a post. “We have cyberposts that meet on line. They communicate via the Internet and they Tweet (on the Web site Twitter),” said March. “The younger servicemen and veterans are bringing in new technologies. That’s good.”

But March said one reason membership may be lower is that nobody asked. “The biggest obstacle is we often ask ‘Are you a member of the Legion?’ and they say ‘Nobody asked me.’ We are reaching out more and when we ask them to join, they’re happy about that.”

Alan Davis serves on the membership committee of the Wilmington American Legion. Davis served during the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1968 and has been marching in the Wilmington Memorial Day parade for 40 years. Davis said the Wilmington Post has approximately 40 members with three or four currently on active duty.

Davis said 90% of the those belonging to the post are in their late 50s and 60s and finding current servicemen and veterans to join hasn’t been easy. “We’re picking some up now but a lot of the younger guys, when they leave the service, don’t return. It mostly has to with jobs,” said Davis. He also said the Wilmington American Legion is waiving dues to attract new members. In the meantime, the Wilmington American Legion will participate in the parade with members of the Whitingham legion. “We’ll probably end up with half a dozen of us marching,” said Davis.