Veterans are familiar with being used as props. Parades, V.I.P. tours and various public functions often require service members to line up, fill seats and keep our mouths shut. Unfortunately, the NBC/MSNBC commander-in-chief forum hosted by Matt Lauer on Wednesday evening felt the same way. It was a well-intended gesture that failed to give veterans their voice as promised.

I attended the forum with about a dozen other veterans who are also students at Columbia University, after securing tickets online from NBC. We boarded the retired aircraft carrier Intrepid expecting to see the presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump field questions directly from veterans representing the diverse backgrounds that the modern military now represents, including birthplace, sexual orientation and political leaning, as well as war and peacetime service experience.

Instead, we watched as each candidate’s 30-minute appearance was largely taken up by questions and remarks from Mr. Lauer. Only 10 veterans were given the opportunity to ask a question: four for Mrs. Clinton, six for Mr. Trump.

That wasn’t all that was disappointing. Veterans were corralled by NBC staff members to fill seats and instructed to “observe military decorum.” We were told variously to sit here or walk there to fill background shots. Our bodies contributed more than our voices.