By Scott Cooper

Last week, 75 Vets for American Ideals leaders—veterans and wartime allies from Iraq and Afghanistan—gathered in Washington, D.C. for our third VFAI Leader Convening.

They came from over 20 states, bringing a diversity of political and religious identities. But we have more in common than not: we share the transformational experience of service. We are committed to the belief that service doesn’t stop when you take off the uniform—so at our largest gathering to date we came together around the question: how can we, as veterans, continue to contribute and lead?

On Tuesday, early arrivals gathered for “SIV Sips” at a Starbucks in Falls Church, where we got to know several recently arrived refugees and SIV recipients. On Wednesday, leaders toured “The Americans and the Holocaust” exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Museum. We reflected on public attitudes towards refugees back then and how they are paralleled today. 

 As part of our campaign to ensure the United States upholds its promise to our wartime allies, on Thursday we met with more than 70 Members of Congress and staff from both political parties to underscore the importance of the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program and the Iraqi Direct Access “P2” Program.

Photos, from left to right: Iowa leaders meet with Congressman David Young (R-IA-3); Massachusetts leaders with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Colorado leaders in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC

Standing beside our partners at No One Left Behind and Vietnam Veterans of America, we held a press conference in front of the Capitol where Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego delivered remarks. Together, we called for a renewal of the Afghan SIV program and for Congress to make sure our Iraqi allies aren’t left behind as a result of the lower refugee admissions cap.

The next day, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee weighed in with a Fox News op-ed, calling on Congress to appropriate enough visas to cover the need, declaring “This is an issue that surpasses partisanship.”    

But the convening in D.C. was about much more than advocacy. Over meals and drinks, we built community, shared stories about where we are from, our time in service, and what brought each of us to our nation’s capital. And we brought others into the fold: on their way to our group dinner on the last night, one cohort struck up a conversation with their Lyft driver, Ahmed—a former interpreter and SIV recipient himself! Ahmed joined us that evening, and again the next afternoon. He now is proudly one of our ranks.

At a divisive time in our nation, Vets for American Ideals believes that veterans can be a unifying force in our communities. Throughout the three-day convening, we heard from experts and received training on how to be just that in a variety of ways. We learned skills in organizing, storytelling, media engagement, social media, how to engage with those who disagree, and how to leverage their voices as veterans.

Most importantly, we made plans. Some of us, like Buck Cole in Austin, are launching VFAI teams in their communities. Others are planning service projects, community-building activities, or further outreach to policymakers.

The Atlanta team, for example, got immediately to it and had an early morning the day after the convening when they participated in a 5k run for refugees. While in Illinois, Arti Walker-Peddakotla and the rest of the Chicago team got to planning a networking night with Upwardly Global, where they’ll enlist their fellow local veterans in assisting refugees with job interview preparation.

Over in Warrenton, Virginia, Cal Hickey is tapping into his church community to rally support for an Afghan SIV family as they adjust to their new lives in his state. Troy Mack, Matt Lester, Rob Giorgi, Atsuko Sakurai, and Myles Melnicoff in the VFAI New York/New Jersey chapter, on the other hand, are celebrating a recent victory after they recently helped establish departments of veterans affairs and immigrant affairs in Jersey City. And lastly, this week, the Boston team, led by Michael Trudeau, Jimmy Santos and Sean Horgan, will host an “SIV Sip” at a local Starbucks.

At VFAI, we know that the title “citizen” is more important than the title “veteran”, and that being a good citizen requires you to keep serving, keep reaching across the aisle, keep lending a hand to those in need, and keep striving toward the more perfect realization of our national ideals. The success of our American experiment depends on it.