WASHINGTON (AP) — The travel industry is promising to create nearly 3,000 jobs for veterans and military spouses by 2014 as part of a program announced Wednesday by Michelle Obama.

The first lady’s office said the American Society of Travel Agents was creating a coalition to help veterans and military spouses get jobs in the travel industry and hang on to them as families are transferred to different military bases.

Mrs. Obama and Jill Biden, the wife of the vice president, are leading the Joining Forces campaign to encourage businesses, communities and others to support military families.

The travel industry coalition includes companies such as Orbitz Worldwide, American Express Consumer Travel network, Amadeus North America, and a number of leading rental car companies.

Updated 2/13/2012 9:17 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) – General Electric says it will hire 5,000 military veterans over the next five years and invest $580 million to expand its aviation business.

The announcements are part of a four-day event that the global conglomerate is hosting with partners in Washington, D.C., that focuses on issues like manufacturing and job creation in America.

GE (GE) said Monday that its “Hire Our Heroes” partnership will help match veterans with jobs, while its aviation unit will add more than 400 manufacturing jobs and open three new plants next year.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Xavier Alvarez was in good company when he stood up at a public meeting and called himself a wounded war veteran who had received the top military award, the Medal of Honor.

Alvarez was lying about his medal, his wounds and his military service, but he wasn’t the first man to invent war exploits.

He was, however, one of the first people prosecuted under a 2006 federal law aimed at curbing false claims of military valor.

Concerns that the law improperly limits speech and turns people into criminals for things they say, rather than do, are at the heart of the Supreme Court’s review of his case and the Stolen Valor Act.

Veterans groups have come to the aid of the Obama administration, which calls the law a narrowly crafted effort to protect the system of military awards that was established during the Revolutionary War by Gen. George Washington. The high court will hear the case Wednesday, which is Washington’s 280th birthday.

“They’re committing fraud. They’re impersonating somebody else. They take on attributes of somebody else, attributes of a hero who served honorably,” said Pam Sterner, whose college term paper calling for the law wound up in the hands of members of Congress. “When you do that, impersonating someone else, that’s fraud, not freedom of speech.”

Civil liberties groups, writers, publishers and news media outlets, including the Associated Press, have told the justices they worry the law, and especially the administration’s defense of it, could lead to more attempts by government to regulate speech.

When he established military decorations in 1782, seven years before he was elected as the nation’s first president, Washington himself also prescribed severe military punishment for soldiers who purported to be medal winners but weren’t. Since then, many men have embellished their war records, and some have won special recognition.

A Pasadena woman who served 12 years in theU.S. Army, including tours of duty in Iraq, filed suit Wednesday against the Department of Veterans Affairs for denying her full disability benefits because she is married to a woman.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles by Tracey Cooper-Harris seeks a ruling that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally discriminates against legally married same-sex couples.

Cooper-Harris, who earned the rank of sergeant and more than 20 medals during her Army service, was honorably discharged in 2003 and married her spouse, Maggie, during the six-month period in 2008 when same-sex marriage was legal in California. The veteran who trained and provided care for military service animals, such as explosives-sniffing dogs, has suffered from post-traumatic stress disordersince returning to civilian life and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2010.

The regional VA medical center determined that Cooper-Harris’ illnesses were “service-related” and she has been collecting benefits since the diagnosis but at the lesser rate paid to single veterans. She petitioned the VA for recognition of her spouse as her legal beneficiary but was denied in a letter in August in which the VA wrote that her marriage “is not valid under current federal regulations.”

In her lawsuit, Cooper-Harris said she receives a $1,478 monthly disability benefit, which is $124 less than for a married veteran. Additionally, she said, in the event of her death her surviving spouse won’t receive the compensation to which an opposite-sex spouse is entitled.

“There is a good likelihood that multiple sclerosis will cause my death, and I just want to make sure that whatever benefits are available that Maggie gets them if I do die,” said Cooper-Harris, 38, in a telephone interview fromWashington, D.C., where her lawsuit was announced at the National Press Club.

The VA policy of recognizing only opposite-sex spouses as eligible for benefits — a practice dictated by the Defense of Marriage Act throughout the federal government —- “sends a disturbing message to gay and lesbian service members that the courage, commitment and sacrifice they make on behalf of their country are not valued as much as the service of heterosexual military veterans,” said attorney Randall Lee, whose law firm is representing Cooper-Harris pro bono.

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder, Jr. said a year ago that he believed that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. The Obama administration has ceased defending the statute from the various lawsuits filed against it, but conservatives in the House of Representatives have directed their legal counsel to defend it in the absence of the Justice Department.

Cooper-Harris’ suit is at least the 10th to challenge the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act but the first to seek a ruling on the denial of military disability benefits on the basis of sexual orientation, Lee said.

Several challenges of the statute, known by its acronym, DOMA, are making their way through federal courts in the Northeast. One suit brought by same-sex couples and surviving spouses in Massachusetts led a federal judge to strike down parts of the 14-year-old law in 2010.

Justice Department spokesman Charles S. Miller said the government had no comment on the latest lawsuit, which names both the VA and Holder as defendants.

For Jason Jones, returning from military service was like dropping into an alien world.

The Indianapolis resident served a three-year stint with the U.S. Army in Germany. His days were strictly regimented, with the focus solely on the day’s mission.

Once he was discharged, that structure disappeared.

“It was like I was out of touch with the culture. I was away, in another country, and I felt like life has gone on without me,” he said.

For soldiers such as Jones, the transition to civilian life can be jarring. Add to it the mental barrage that comes from combat situations, and many veterans find themselves struggling mentally and emotionally.

To best address the challenges facing military veterans, mental health providers are changing the way they reach out to former and current soldiers.

Through a specialized training program that focuses on the unique problems that soldiers face, chaplains, clergy and counselors hope to lessen the devastating depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome that many former military members face.

“Unless you work in veterans affairs, most therapists and counselors are not prepared for the issues that soldiers have faced in combat,” said Matthias Beier, a counselor and professor at Christian Theological Seminary. “As more people experience this, we need to address the issue.”

From his classroom, Beier helps train the next generation of chaplains and clergy members. He specializes in psychotherapy, how pastors, chaplains and others can help counsel people and their families through mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

But he’s noticed that for all of the lessons, few of the techniques deal specifically with military veterans.

The point was driven home after he joined the Indiana State Suicide Advisory Committee. He learned that a large proportion of suicides are committed by military veterans.

Statistics from the Department of Defense indicate that 18 veterans commit suicide every day. One out of every five suicide victims is a veteran.

Through research, Beier learned that soldiers and veterans deal with mental health issues that civilians never face.

They have witnessed intense violence under incredible stress on a daily basis.

They wonder if they’ll be rejected by people because of their service, or if their efforts in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be seen as unjust.

Probably the best-known problem facing soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is post-traumatic stress disorder, said Dr. Steven Herman, lead psychologist at Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis.

Since operations in those countries started, more than 85,000 military members have been diagnosed with the disorder, according to the U.S. Office of the Surgeon General.

They have experienced a horrible trauma, from an enemy attack or the death of a fellow soldier, and then relive that tragedy repeatedly.

Flashbacks and nightmares are common, and victims can become irritable, suffer from poor sleep and concentration, and have panic attacks.

“The biggest problem we see is that people avoid dealing with their symptoms and the problem,” Herman said. “They repress it and end up delaying their treatment. Research has shown that the earlier you start, the more successful treatment can be.”

Lt. Col. Eric Ebb sees these issues every day. As chaplain at Camp Atterbury, he and his staff of chaplains are required to meet with every soldier coming through the post.

Ebb described a soldier he had recently worked with. The man had returned from Iraq after doing convoy security and was driving with his family.

Next to his car, a truck’s tire blew out. The explosion and loud noise caused him to flash back. He drove his car in the center line at close to 100 mph, screaming, “Status, status.”

“He realized, `I could have killed my family,”‘ Ebb said. “Everyone will have a trigger of some sort, from panicking in a thunderstorm, to being at a restaurant and stopping and looking for their weapon.”

Herman said that spirituality and post-traumatic stress disorder are mirror opposites. Spirituality is about finding structure and guidance in the universe, where the disorder forces people to believe that the world is in chaos.

“Clergy and mental health community can work together quite effectively then in treating post-traumatic stress disorder,” he said. “A spiritual component is a very efficient part of the treatment.”

Beier teamed up with Herman and Maj. Jim Staggers, deputy state chaplain for the U.S. Army, to address the problem. They developed a training program that will help clergy and mental health providers work together to treat soldiers more effectively.

The session helps explain causes of post-traumatic stress disorder and how to approach it, signals that a veteran may be struggling with anxiety or depression, and how clergy can work with families to help provide care.

Often, pastors, clergy members and counselors are the first people a soldier tries to talk to for help, Beier said. They need to know how to handle the specific situations and refer them to the proper help.

Returning soldiers often are anxious about where they will find work, how they’ll interact with their families again, and how they’ll pay the bills that they now have to worry about.

Some are facing divorce or problems reconnecting with their children.

People feel disconnected and isolated from what should normally be their support system — family, church and community, said Marsha Rockey, a psychologist for the behavioral health services at Camp Atterbury.

“Soldiers will tell us on a regular basis that sometimes being deployed is less stressful. It’s stressful from the combat aspect, but you don’t have to worry about paying bills, you don’t have to worry about what you’ll eat, any kind of transportation,” she said. “You go from that to being overloaded with multiple demands.”

Rockey works with the camp’s chaplain services to provide medical and spiritual care to soldiers.

One-on-one conversations help identify potential concerns that a soldier might have. Throughout the interviews, they try to identify indicators that a soldier may be struggling with a mental health problem.

If they experienced a death while on deployment, either a fellow soldier in combat or someone back home who died while they were gone, they might be sent to speak with a counselor.

Getting married suddenly before being deployed or going through a divorce also are red flags that the soldier may soon experience overwhelming emotional problems.

“When you come back home, you feel like you’ve been beamed back to a parallel universe,” Ebb said. “It’s the same home, the same people, the same environment, but it’s not the same, and it never will be the same.”

Jones served during peace-time from 1992 to 1995. From his experience, soldiers were more affected by issues of addiction and substance abuse than by post-traumatic stress disorder. Working in a German base, far from any fighting, most soldiers spent their free time drinking.

Separated from the structure of the military, those behaviors could devolve and spin out of control.

“It kind of felt like a free-for-all. Now I had all of this freedom to do what I wanted. It was quite an adjustment,” Jones said.

Jones was inspired by his experiences as a soldier to train as a counselor. A student of Beier’s and now an intern at the seminary’s counseling center, he is studying to focus on addiction, particularly among veterans.

He will be starting an internship at the Roudebush VA Medical Center to work in that area.

“I think I can reach them. I wasn’t in combat, so I can’t relate to the experience of that, but I’ve seen addiction. I can help,” he said.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2012/01/25/us-soldiers-face-host-of-mental-health-issues

Studies found they were prone to depression, substance abuse and suicide

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 25 (HealthDay News) — U.S. military personnel and veterans are plagued by substance abuse, depression and suicide, three new studies indicate.

In one study, researchers surveyed nearly 600 veterans returning from war zone deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan, and found that they were at increased risk for mental health problems and alcohol and drug abuse.

Nearly 14 percent of the veterans screened positive for probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 39 percent for probable alcohol abuse, and 3 percent for probable drug use. Men reported more alcohol and drug use than women, but there were no gender differences in PTSD or other mental health conditions.

Veterans returning from Iraq reported more depression or functioning problems and more alcohol and drug use than those returning from Afghanistan. Army and Marine veterans reported worse mental and physical health than Air Force or Navy veterans.

The studies were published online Jan. 25 in the American Journal of Public Health and are scheduled to appear in the March supplement print issue of the journal.

In the second study, researchers found that major depression and substance use disorders have increased among active duty combat-exposed veterans. The finding comes from an analysis of data from 678,382 active personnel serving between 2001 and 2006.

Those who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan were more likely to be diagnosed with major depression or substance abuse than non-deployed personnel. Army and Marine Corps personnel were more likely to be diagnosed with the conditions than Navy and Air Force personnel.

“Our study provided valuable insight for the mental health readiness of the U.S. armed services and implications for potential, continued support of ongoing operations and their post-deployment health care needs,” the researchers wrote in a journal news release.

“Given the continuing U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and other parts of the world, and the increasing trend in major mental health conditions reported in the U.S. military, it would be important for the Department of Defense to assess whether the current system has adequate resources and manpower to handle the increasing number of active duty personnel who need mental health services,” they concluded.

The third study found that suicide rates for all U.S. military services increased between 2005 and 2007, particularly for members of the regular Army and National Guard.

The analysis of data from 2,064,183 active duty personnel in 2005 and 1,981,810 active duty personnel in 2007 also showed that mental health diagnoses, mental health visits, prescriptions for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants and sleep medicines, reduction in rank, enlisted rank and separation or divorce were all associated with suicides.

Deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan were associated with an elevated risk of suicide among all services in 2007, and for the Army in 2005.

The increased risk of suicide associated with deployments in 2007 compared with 2005 may be due to the extended duration of war and increasing lengths of deployment for Army and Air Force personnel, the researchers suggested.

“Additional research needs to address the increasing rates of suicide in active duty personnel. This should include careful evaluation of suicide prevention programs and the possible increase in risk associated with SSRIs and other mental health drugs, as well as the possible impact of shorter deployments, age, mental health diagnoses and relationship problems,” the researchers concluded.

For-profit colleges are being scrutinized by Congress, the U.S. Department of Educationand the Justice Department for saddling students with crushing debt and questionable degrees that don’t lead to jobs in their fields of study. Much of their revenue comes from federal grants and loans.

Military veterans are being aggressively recruited, critics claim, because of their lucrative forms of federal aid, such as GI Bill funds and Department of Defense tuition assistance benefits. That aid doesn’t count toward the 90-10 rule, which bars for-profit colleges and universities from deriving more than 90 percent of their revenue from the Department of Education’s federal student aid programs. The purpose of the rule is to ensure that for-profit schools, many of which are publicly held corporations, are not using taxpayer money as their sole source of revenue.

A Dec. 8 Senate committee report noted that educational benefits from the Veteran’s Administration and the Department of Defense received by 20 for-profit education companies between 2006 and 2010 increased 683 percent, to more than a half-billion dollars.

Durbin will propose changing the rule to 85-15, meaning for-profit colleges would be limited to receiving 85 percent of their revenue from federal financial aid. Significantly, it would also count education aid for military personnel toward that 85 percent, eliminating the special incentive for career schools to recruit veterans.

Brian Moran, interim president of the Washington-based Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, which represents for-profits colleges, said in a statement that some legislators “have chosen to erect, rather than break down, the barriers to critical job-training and educational programs for veterans. Sen. Durbin’s reported legislation on recruiting will only cut off access for thousands of veterans to the skill-intensive, hands-on programming and intensive job-placement support that veterans transitioning into the workplace need.”

Those at American Military University, a provider of online education to active members of the military, contend schools like theirs are wrongfully lumped with schools using questionable tactics.

“No matter how well we’re doing and how long we’ve been honorably serving the military, we get caught up in this because of the broad-brush strokes with this attack on the for-profit industry,” said Jim Sweizer, vice president of military programs at American Military University, based in Charles Town, W.Va.

He added: “It’s somewhat insulting that they don’t give veterans the benefit of the doubt — these are intelligent people — and (they portray them as) being totally duped by a school.”

Veterans and for-profit colleges will be a topic at a forum 9:30 a.m. Monday at the Dirksen Federal Building, 219 S. Dearborn St., Room 2525, and will be attended by Durbin and Holly Petraeus, assistant director of service member affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Members of the public interested in attending must contact Durbin’s office by emailing forprofitcollegeforum@gmail.com or calling 312-353-4952.

gkarp@tribune.com

Gov. Pat Quinn today announced a program aimed at helping veterans and active duty military members purchase homes by providing $10,000 grants for down payment and closing costs.

Qualified applicants also will be able to lock in low-interest loans at 4 percent for a 30-year mortgage and receive an additional tax credit of up to $20,000 over that same time period.

The money comes from a combination of state and federal sources and is first-come, first-serve. It’s estimated that 1,000 veterans and service members will qualify for the program, dubbed Welcome Home Heroes.

“I don’t think there’s a better holiday present, Christmas present, that we can give our veterans than to help them get a home and be a homeowner,” Quinn said at the National Guard Armory on the city’s Near South Side.

Applicants must meet certain income and purchase price requirements depending on which area of the state they live. More information can be found at ihda.org.

Reporting from Fayetteville, N.C — As a soldier, Ruth Donaldson was an accomplished ammunition specialist. As a civilian, she became a stressed-out single mother struggling to find a job and raise her child.

After a five-year stint in the Army, Donaldson lost her job at a gas station. She couldn’t pay her rent. She and her 6-year-old son ended up living in a Pontiac Grand Am, hungry, homeless and exhausted.

Women make up a growing number of homeless veterans, a group usually associated with combat-hardened men unable to cope with civilian life. Homelessness among female veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has increased every year for the last six years — from 150 in 2006 to 1,700 this year — according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“It just seemed like it was one thing after the other, and I got so far down it was hard to come out of it,” said Donaldson, who moved last month into a shelter for female veterans in Fayetteville.

Female veterans contend with the same stresses that can lead to homelessness among male veterans — brain injuries, drug and alcohol abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. But many women also contend with sexual trauma, domestic abuse and pregnancy — often while trying to raise children alone.

The VA, which has made ending homelessness a priority, says 1 in 5 female veterans report sexual trauma in the military, compared with 1 in 100 men.

Stephanie Felder, homeless program coordinator for the VA in Fayetteville, outside Ft. Bragg, says 18% of homeless veterans assisted this year are women.

“It’s often a slippery slope of one thing leading to another, and their circumstances just overwhelm them and they end up homeless,” Felder said.

Dasia Handy, 23, arrived pregnant and homeless with an 18-month-old son at Jubilee House, a private center. Handy served four years as an Army chemical operations specialist before leaving last year.

“People don’t realize the impact of being homeless,” Handy said. “All the normal things you count on in your life are suddenly gone, and you’re hung out there, all on your own.”

Jubilee House was founded by Barbara Marshall, a former Navy chaplain who had readjustment problems when she left active duty. In 2006, Marshall opened her home to homeless female veterans.

Last year, she bought a foreclosed, three-bedroom, 1,300-square-foot home to help house a growing number of homeless women. Last summer, with help from Ft. Bragg soldiers and the TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” the house was torn down and replaced by a new eight-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot facility.

Five formerly homeless female veterans live there with their children.

“These are smart, highly trained, highly skilled women with a lot of invisible scars,” Marshall said. “All they need is a little help and encouragement.”

Since 2006, the VA has helped almost 3,000 homeless female veterans among the 24,000 homeless veterans from the two wars. The numbers do not include homeless veterans who have not contacted the VA.

Overall, about 76,000 veterans are homeless in the U.S. on a given night, according to a Department of Housing and Urban Development report. (About 11% of all homeless veterans are in Los Angeles.) During 2009, nearly 136,000 veterans spent at least one night in a homeless shelter.

Veterans make up 8% of the U.S. population, but almost 16% of homeless adults. Half of all homeless veterans suffer from mental illness, and two-thirds are substance abusers, the VA said.

The VA offers a range of benefits, including medical care and education assistance. The agency also helps homeless veterans with housing, substance abuse and PTSD treatment, child care, employment and education. More than 400 formerly homeless vets have been hired and trained to help others find jobs.

But some don’t apply for benefits. Others aren’t aware they’re eligible.

“They just assume they aren’t eligible because they didn’t get shot at,” said Ed Drohan of the VA in Fayetteville. Any honorably discharged veteran is eligible, he said.

Though women do not serve in direct combat roles, all troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are vulnerable to enemy attack in wars with no front lines. Roadside bombs and insurgents kill and wound support troops as well as combat troops. Among veterans from those wars, about a quarter have PTSD or depressive disorder, and about a fifth are substance abusers.

Donaldson said she was diagnosed with PTSD, even though she did not serve in combat. She moved out after her then-husband, a soldier, physically abused her, she said.

She managed to get an apartment, but after she lost her gas station job, she couldn’t afford her rent.

A friend told her about Jubilee House, where Donaldson now has a room for her and her son, Dante. The boy is enrolled in school and Donaldson has her eye on a rental house down the street. With VA housing assistance, she hopes to move in next month.

After leaving the Army while stationed in Germany last year, Dasia Handy said, she took a part-time job in a warehouse and found a nanny for her infant son. But she was injured in an accident and lost her job.

After she became pregnant in February, no one in Germany would hire her, she said. She ended up camping out at a friend’s house.

From Germany, Handy called VA offices in five states, demanding help. “The military taught me to take charge,” she said.

The VA in Fayetteville referred her to Marshall, who invited her to Jubilee House. Handy arrived in August.

“She was as persistent as she could be – very determined,” Marshall said.

Handy has applied for a job and for college with financial help from the VA, which also helps pay for child care. With her baby due next month, she’s looking for an apartment.

“My goal” she said, “is to be out of here and back on my feet as soon as possible.”

www.huffingtonpost.com

Young military veterans saw little to celebrate in last week’s much cheered unemployment report. Data released the same day by the Department of Labor revealed that one in three young veterans was out of a job in the last quarter of 2011 — an employment picture even worse than a year earlier, when one in five couldn’t find work.

This rate is more double that of their civilian peers; the unemployment rate for all Americans age 18-24 actually decreased over the same time period.

“I definitely think it’s getting worse out there,” said Daniel Hutchison, 29, who started a one-man transition assistance group, Ohio Combat Veterans, last May. “Part of that has to do with the economy across the board. The unemployment rate is still high, and with veterans, it’s even more complicated.”

Veterans don’t always know how to translate their skills in the battlefield for employers back home. And while they look for work, they’re often battling post-traumatic stress disorder, which can be compounded, Hutchison said, by not finding a job.

“Veterans will sell themselves short. On their résumés, they’ll just say, ‘I was field artillery in Iraq for 16 months.’” Hutchison continued. “So I’ll say, ‘But you have leadership skills. How much training did you do? How many people did you manage?’ These are all attributes that these veterans have, but they can’t really see it.”

After five years in the U.S. Army, Hutchison returned home in 2007 expecting to pick up his previous construction job or something like it in the industry. But when he came back from Iraq, the housing bubble had popped.

“In today’s economy you can’t give away a house, so I was taking pretty much any little thing I could get,” he recalled. He had worked as a medic in the Army and thought that offered employment skills, but he didn’t hold any civilian certifications.

Hutchison now runs Ohio Combat Veterans by himself, with some donations and his own Army benefits. Since last May, he’s helped about 100 veterans — and they’ve helped him, too. “Just running this program was real therapeutic for me,” he said.

While organizations like Hutchison’s can be critical for catching veterans who have slipped through the cracks, some who focus on unemployment issues and veterans think the problem goes beyond PTSD and the difficulty of translating military skills for civilian employers.

Ted Daywalt, who runs VetJobs.com in Georgia, observes that most young unemployed veterans are part of the National Guard or the Reserves, and employers hesitate to hire them not because of weak résumés, but because of the increase in Pentagon calls for Reserve and Guard members to return to service. A new policy on call-ups implemented in 2007, combined with a law that requires companies to restore reservists to their jobs after they come home, means that employers are more reluctant than ever to hire veterans.

“An employer cannot run their business if their most critical asset, human capital, is being taken away for 12 to 24 months,” Daywalt said.

Some 180,000 people visit VetJobs.com every month, and they receive dozens of calls a day, Daywalt said. The most common plea, he continued, comes from a veteran in the Reserves or Guard who has just been called up and then suddenly finds himself laid off, with his employer blaming the pressures of the weak economy. According to Daywalt, who is a Vietnam-era veteran and a reservist for 21 years, some 65 to 70 percent of employers won’t hire from the National Guard or the Reserves, even though this type of discrimination is illegal.

“Employers would prefer to hire someone out of the military, but they’re called up so frequently, no one wants to hire them,” he said. “As a reservist, I get real upset. But when I put on my CEO hat, I totally understand why they’re doing it.”

Daywalt has testified before Congress multiple times on the subject and is firm on this point: Veterans who are not part of the Reserves or the National Guard typically find work, he said. But unless there is a change in the call-up policy, he expects unemployment for young veterans to keep rising.

“In 2007 in a hearing at Congress, I said the unemployment rate is going to go up to 20 percent, and people scoffed,” Daywalt recalled. “This year you’re going to see it go up to 50 or more percent.”