11:00pm Update:

As veterans arrived at the state VFW convention at the Holiday Inn in Liverpool, many reminisced on their own service and how the country would respond to the 33,000 soldiers coming home from Afghanistan.

Melvin Garrett served in World War 2 and said he was glad to see that the troops would be back with their families and loved ones.

"It's going to help to give those who are serving a chance to come back and re-insert themselves in our society and become the kind of people they'd like to be before they were interrupted to serve our country."

For Skip Penfield the news of the withdrawal was more troubling. he worried that pulling out troops could destabilize Afghanistan at a crucial time.

"If they pull out now, the troops had no reason to be over there," said Penfield.

Penfield hoped the U.S. wasn't repeating what he saw as mistakes from the past.

"That's what they did with us in Vietnam," They pulled out and I'm sorry, it still hurts."

Other veterans just wanted to be sure that the troops have proper support for when they got back home. Jim Fields said that while the decades and wars may have changed, overseas veterans share a special bond.

"Let's not forget there are 70,000 kids - they're younger than me, they're kids - over there," said Fields. "The people from here need to look out and say these people are over there protecting me."

There will be presentations at this weekend's convention from Afghanistan war veterans about how the VFW can serve the next generation of troops.