Eric Perez and Dan Mariani report from the Veteran and Military Center on campus, where opinions differ but there’s consensus on feeling mostly ignored in terms of their post service challenges when it comes to current political discussions.
On the third floor of the William Pennington Student Center, at the University of Nevada, Reno, military veterans gather to assist each other with their college assignments and general morale. Like in other campus spots, the upcoming elections can be a topic of discussion.
With students a key demographic in a swing county in a swing state, NevadaVote reporters found student veterans to be diverse in their views, but generally disappointed that their particular challenges aren’t being significantly addressed.
“I am going to vote for Kamala Harris, more so the vote doesn’t go in the other direction,” Mackenzie a former Army combat medic said. Mackenzie, originally from Oregon, who only wanted to give her fist name came to UNR for both its criminal justice program and its relative closeness to friends and family.
The Veteran and Military Center is a home away from home for her, a place on campus to support the transition of military-connected students.
With the walls decorated with military memorabilia and flags, this is where student veterans relax and study with others who have also served. Oftentimes, the transition to becoming a college student can be seen as a challenge, as veterans still possess some military traits or carry baggage from that past.
At UNR, there are over 600 students reported to be benefiting from the G.I. Bill, which is a law started in 1944 that provides assistance to veterans in covering their costs of school and training after their service. This would put student veterans at roughly 3% of the student body.
“With Kamala, she’s been very vocal with the core things of what she wants to focus on,” Mackenzie said. “And I really support how she wants to get more on the educational side of things and work with the homeless and mental health issues across the nation. I think it’s time to have a woman in office beyond a vice president.”
For Riley McDonald, a former Marine Corps air crewman working to check in students into the center, his answer to who he was voting for was blunt, “Trump” he shared.
“Election security because I don’t care on [which] side, people are on their shenanigans from both,” McDonald responded when asked about his top issue.
“Then probably my biggest thing voting towards would be the economy and then the wonderful wars people keep trying to get us involved with,” he said sarcastically.
A third student, an army medic who served a deployment in Iraq, said he’s never voted, and in all likelihood wouldn’t this election cycle either. He didn’t want his name used but accepted to be interviewed.
“Never voted,” he said. “ Never did it because I never really cared that much about who is president. I don’t think who the president is has that big of an impact on me for me to want to fill out paperwork and wait in line.”
For him to vote, he’d have to be “really swayed for someone.”
“Even if it was an issue I cared about like mental health, I don’t think that I would care for the government putting money into it, because I’m not huge on the government fixing stuff… because I don’t even think that the money the government gets for those issues fixes it that much,” he said.
The UNR veterans were also asked if the veteran status of the vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and J.D Vance, factored into their voting decision-making process. Walz served and finished his twenty years in the National Guard in the artillery unit, but re-enlisted for four more additional years after 9/11. He spent one year in Italy to assist with the Afghanistan War. Vance served four years in the Marine Corps. He served as a military journalist in the public relations department and deployed for six months in Iraq.
“I will honestly say that there’s not enough of a sway for somebody to have military experience that would make me lean towards them or be the final straw that puts my vote towards them,” Mackenzie said. “I think there’s a totality of the whole person that we have to really remember when we’re electing somebody”
“It doesn’t really sway me,” McDonald said. “Only in the event of you lying about what you’ve done is when I take issue to it… It’s cool that they did it [served] and it gets you a little points, but I care more about policy and what people actually plan on doing,” McDonald said.
“Honestly not really. Them being a veteran doesn’t really … you know… I think what they do in the job that they’re in makes a bigger difference,” the former medic said.
When asked about veteran benefits and if veteran issues were being addressed this election cycle, both Mackenzie and McDonald expressed discontentment.
Veterans are eligible for various benefit programs from health care, to disability compensation, and housing assistance, to name a few. Current benefits vary from veteran to veteran, but many complain of the United State Department of Veteran Affairs having backlogged claims, unnecessarily long wait times, and a lack of comprehensive mental health services.
“Presidential-wise they really haven’t brought that [veteran benefits] up. I know Vance and Walz tried to bring that up during their debate, but the wonderful debates go how they go. They don’t really talk about anything,” said McDonald.
“Homelessness and mental health issues are one of the main issues that the veteran community deals with, and as much as we want to say that there are programs available, there just isn’t enough funding for a lot of these programs or there’s not enough space to be effective,” Mackenzie said.
Inside the memorabilia filled Veteran and Military Center, nothing appears to be a political flag or promoting one political affiliation over the other, symbolic of the unifying nature of service.
