ST. PAUL, MINN. - Bill Lack, one of the older members of North Carolina's delegation to the Republican National Convention, joined the National Guard in 1950. Within months, his unit was sent to Korea.

Justin Burr, a 23-year-old bail bondsman from Albemarle, is one of the delegation's youngest members. His ties to the military: two cousins in the reserves.

Republicans nominated John McCain, a war hero whose Navy career might be his greatest asset. But as numbers of veterans decline, a military resume might not strike the chord that it once did. McCain supporters hope his service, including more than five years as a prisoner, will appeal to voters with no ties to the armed forces.

"I'm afraid there are a lot of people to whom that doesn't mean a lot," said Lack, 74, a retired Sears merchandising manager from Asheville.

Society's connection to the military has weakened in the past half century. Veterans' ranks are diminishing, as the World War II generation dies. The military, though it fights in Iraq and Afghanistan, is smaller. There is no draft.

"A much smaller percentage of our population is carrying the weight of military duty," said state Rep. Ric Killian, a delegate from Charlotte and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve.

By the late 1950s, half the men in the nation were veterans. Now that figure is about 15 percent.

"Now you have families in which nobody has ever been in the military," said Jack Swann of Hampstead, a delegate and Air Force navigator in Vietnam. Swann and other delegates who are veterans contend that years in uniform still boost a candidate in the eyes of voters, especially in a military-heavy state such as North Carolina.

"We may not have as many [veterans] as we did before," said Raleigh tax lawyer and delegate Steve Long, "but it's still a big part of our psyche."

Since the end of the Cold War, nearly 20 years ago, war has lost its primacy in the public's mind, said Richard Kohn, former chief historian for the Air Force and now an adjunct professor of history and peace, war and defense at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Even though the nation has troops overseas, Kohn said, the war on terror is often not viewed through a military prism, with no mobilization among the public, no call for sacrifice.

"The military is at war. America is at the mall," Kohn said. "We genuflect for the military. We have military generals stand up at these conventions. But we don't tell our children to go serve. We let recruiters bribe them [with bonuses]. There's no move to re-establish ROTC at the elite universities of the Northeast."

Advice for McCain

Dolores Shaver, a delegate from Seven Lakes, near Pinehurst, served in the Army as a secretary and member of the infantry. But she said McCain has to stop talking so much about his war record.

"He has to relate to people nowadays. ... That's so long ago," Shaver said. "That's not going to make people vote for him."

While the public's connection with the military has diminished, there are some trends pushing the other direction, said Peter Feaver, a Duke University political science professor and co-author with Kohn of a book on civil-military relations. Voters move more frequently and communicate with more people through technology -- the Facebook society -- so they have broader social networks. They are at least acquainted with more members of the military than might be readily apparent.

While many voters have no direct tie to the armed forces, they are aware of the troop deployments and the costs, said Feaver, who served on the National Security Council staff under presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

"Because this is an election in wartime," Feaver said, "there is a resonance for military service that goes beyond do you know someone who served."

Palin's connections

That is certainly what the McCain campaign is hoping. When Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, introduced her 19-year-old son, Track, to the convention Wednesday night, she noted that he will be leaving for Iraq in one week with the Army. Palin also said her nephew is serving on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

"I'm just one of many moms who'll say an extra prayer each night for our sons and daughters going into harm's way," Palin said.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign also took pains at last week's Democratic convention to roll out retired generals to vouch for Obama. It was noted that Beau Biden, the son of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, is a National Guard captain deploying to Iraq this fall.

"People respect our military. They respect our veterans," said Dan Mansell, an Army veteran and consultant from Selma who is a Republican convention delegate and a candidate for Congress. "That transcends everything."

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