We salute our nation’s warriors on Veterans Day. It’s a time to highlight their stories and sacrifices, while also examining their needs. After all, how we treat our fighting men and women, after the battles have ended, reflects our values as Americans.

That’s why there was an outcry about the horrible conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, exposed last year. Now, we’ve learned America’s homeless population is predominantly veterans – one-in-four, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, with 100 veterans needing shelter in Maine.

This tragic news should spur an effort equal to the response to Walter Reed. These veterans were there for their country when needed. Their country must now be there for them.

Veterans are men and women. But boys and girls fight the wars, fresh-faced recruits heading into dangerous territory to defend their country, and the ideals upon which it’s built.

They are the graduates of our high schools, who elect military service as their course for personal success. They are young people who chose running and sweating through Marine Corps boot camp as their way to see the world and defend America.

They are everyone who woke up one morning a Mainer, and went to sleep that night a soldier.

They are, as well, the rising number of recruits into the Maine National Guard. This year, guard enrollment met its “end strength objective” for the first time in 10 years, recruiting more than 2,100 soldiers by Oct. 1. A Fryeburg soldier, Pvt. Christalin LaChance, was honored for being number 2,100.

Many reasons were cited for this spike in recruiting enrollment, which “hit rock bottom” in 2005, according to recruiting officials. New financial incentives, lessening chances for deployment, and enhanced family benefits have been supposed causes for the influx.

Old-fashioned patriotism is a reason, too.

These new recruits are tomorrow’s veterans, to be cherished by the nation on Veterans Days for years to come. They are entering military service in uncertain times, during an unpopular conflict, in which support for the troops is unanimous, but the resolve to fight is sometimes wavering.

Our thoughts are with all veterans this day, but with this next generation especially. Our care for American veterans, as proven with Walter Reed, ongoing mental health concerns among returning soldiers, and now the homeless problem, can leave much to be desired.

Our latest soldiers have volunteered their service, however, at a most needed and difficult time.

We must not let them down, when it’s their turn to come home.