Military Veterans in Journalism’s mission is simple: get more military veterans working in America’s newsrooms.

The United States has been at war for more than 18 years at a cost of more than 7,000 lives, about 50,000 wounded and billions in tax dollars. Yet military veterans are vastly underrepresented in our nation’s newsrooms.

While about 7 percent of Americans have served in the armed forces, only 2 percent of media workers are military veterans, according to U.S. Census data.

Veterans bring perspective, nuanced understanding and on-the-ground experience about the military and veteran affairs that ultimately benefits newsrooms and news consumers.