They Deserve More Than Our Thanks

I may be a bit partial having grown up as a military brat, but I feel that we in this country do not do enough to assist our veterans.  Some of you will think that these people voluntarily sign up to do this job and at the end of the their service they move on to do a new job and that they don't deserve any more.  How many other jobs does one sign up for that may require you to risk your life?  These men and women may have signed up for the armed forces because they had no other option, but they give there all every day, wether it be peacetime or in times of conflict.

Everyone that enters the military is trained for combat first regardless of their job that they will do during their service.  They are trained in physical fitness, marksmanship, and mental agility.  After they complete boot camp they are given training in a particular job, anything from infantry, to medical to even nuclear.  They are given training to perform in a military setting.  Those who stay in when their service contract is completed do not have to worry, it is business as usual.  The problem comes when those who leave the service adjust to the civilian world.  We need to better prepare them for the transition, more importantly we need to make sure that there are jobs available for them as well.

23% of the homeless are veterans, including 33% of the male homeless population.  Of the homeless veterans population, 97% are male and 70% suffer from substance abuse.  What are the causes of this?  The first is the transition to civilian life.  If you look at the homeless veterans population, 47% were from the Vietnam era.  When Vietnam veterans returned home, they returned home to scorn.  They were outcasts, and what was worse they got a "thank you for your service, don't let the door hit you on the way out."  They were trained for jungle combat.  No one explained there GI benefits, no one explained what to do with their money, and no one said I have a job for you.  As combat operations wind down if Iraq and Afghanistan, we have an opportunity to correct mistakes of the past, and an obligation to make sure that our service members transition to civilian life.

Jobless rates among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is nearly 13% compared to a national average among civilians of nealry 8%.  Those that are 18-24 have a jobless rate of nearly 30%.  Veterans are ideal employees.  They understand teamwork.  Veterans can excel under stressful situations.  Finally veterans are proven leaders.  We hire people right out of college for many entry level positions that they learned about in a classroom.  Veterans typically had real world experience.  Look at the infrastructure in Iraq and Afghanistan, much of that was built by US troops in a combat zone, they are the people we need fixing roads, bridges, and dams.

Finally, we also need to remember the families of our veterans.  We send these troops into harms way, we ask them to leave there families behind for months at a time, we ask their families to struggle, and we do nothing to help.  I don't know how many of us could do that.  These families need help with daily necessities like shopping for food, child care, paying utility bills, covering rent and mortgages.  These families also need help transitioning to when their loved ones return.

"On this Veterans Day, let us remember the service of our veterans, and let us renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free."  --Dan Lipinski

Love me, hate me, everyone is entitled to my opinion!