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Business World--Fair Weather "Patriots"

A

Anonymous

Guest
Paul Harvey spoke of this today-- the fact that many returning Guardsmen and Reservists say they are not being given their jobs back ( I think Paul said surveys showed 28% couldn't get their job back)-or offered comparable jobs- and as long as they still have a possible military committment- are not given or hired for many jobs or the higher paying jobs with responsibilities....

This is exactly what some of the returning local Guardsmen I've talked with have said...And that our government (the King and the Lord in D.C.)is offering little to no assistance for these folks.....

Seems our business and corporate worlds 'Patriotism" ends after they stick their war profits in their pockets-- and can't be bothered by hiring folks that might inconvenience their profiteering by being recalled to be cannon fodder...
:roll: :( :mad:

The same neocon elititests and businessmen that scream nonpatriot or traitor to someone that questions the war-- are now forcing those that are actually fighting the wars to lie about their military service and duty status to be able to put food on their tables.... :( :(

When Service Limits Options
As Deployments Continue, Some Reservists Rejected for Jobs

By Christian Davenport
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 14, 2007; Page A14

Angela Rooker was proud of her military service and it showed: On her r¿sum¿ she listed her membership in the Air National Guard prominently, highlighting her rise through the ranks and her position as the executive officer of a maintenance group.

But the more job interviews she went to in the civilian world, the more she was asked whether she was going to be deployed to Iraq -- and the more she came to believe her membership in the Guard was a hindrance, not an asset.

Finally, after a year of searching unsuccessfully for a position in the high-tech industry, she reduced her 22 years of military service to a single line on Page 2 of her r¿sum¿: "Military Service: United States Air Force."

"As soon as they figured out I was still very much obligated to the military, it changed the tone of the interview quite a bit," said Rooker, a captain in the California Air National Guard. "Nobody wants to hire a key person that may get deployed."

As the war in Iraq stretches into its fifth year and Guard and Reserve units continue to be called in large numbers -- many for multiple tours -- some service members say their military ties are getting in the way of landing civilian jobs. Despite widespread support for troops, there is a "military service penalty" in the workforce, said Dan Caulfield, executive director of HireAHero.org, a California-based nonprofit agency that helps veterans find jobs.

"There is a huge stigma" attached to reservists and service members in general, he said. One of the mantras passed from soldier to soldier is: "Don't mention you're in the Guard and Reserve," he said. "That is becoming fairly common."

Federal law requires employers, even small companies, to keep jobs open for workers called to active duty. And after some initial confusion, employers have largely honored these rules. Reservists say the problems now arise when they are seeking new jobs.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, many employers sent their reservists off to war "with flags waving," said retired Marine Corps Col. Al Smith, who volunteers for the Defense Department's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve and helps returning reservists get their jobs back.


"There is less flag-waving with the second and third deployment," Smith said. "Even though the employers are supportive as a general rule, there is a disruption in the business environment."

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Geoff Mann of the Virginia Army National Guard said he understands the concern. "I guess it's understandable that they would want to know how much time you're going to be away," he said.

That wariness was evident, he said, during an interview he had in 2005, shortly before he was called up for duty in Iraq for more than a year. The employer wanted to know how often he had to report for duty, and whether he could be called away to war.

He's not sure whether his Guard membership cost him that job. But having to admit he could be called away at any time "makes it more challenging," said Mann, who has been raising his 2-year-old son in Richmond since returning from Iraq in February. "It's a shame because you want to serve your country, but at the same time you have to put food on the table."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/13/AR2007101301208.html
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
But they "support the troops." :roll:

Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.

And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.

The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.

In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.

Some advocates say the early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.

"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.

While services to homeless veterans have improved in the past 20 years, advocates say more financial resources still are needed. With the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to the younger veterans while there's a window of opportunity.

"When the Vietnam War ended, that was part of the problem. The war was over, it was off TV, nobody wanted to hear about it," said John Keaveney, a Vietnam veteran and a founder of New Directions in Los Angeles, which provides substance abuse help, job training and shelter to veterans.

"I think they'll be forgotten," Keaveney said of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. "People get tired of it. It's not glitzy that these are young, honorable, patriotic Americans. They'll just be veterans, and that happens after every war."

Keaveney said it's difficult for his group to persuade some homeless Iraq veterans to stay for treatment and help because they don't relate to the older veterans. Those who stayed have had success -- one is now a stock broker and another is applying to be a police officer, he said.

"They see guys that are their father's age and they don't understand, they don't know, that in a couple of years they'll be looking like them," he said.

After being discharged from the military, Jason Kelley, 23, of Tomahawk, Wis., who served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, took a bus to Los Angeles looking for better job prospects and a new life.

Kelley said he couldn't find a job because he didn't have an apartment, and he couldn't get an apartment because he didn't have a job. He stayed in a $300-a-week motel until his money ran out, then moved into a shelter run by the group U.S. VETS in Inglewood, Calif. He's since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.

"The only training I have is infantry training and there's not really a need for that in the civilian world," Kelley said in a phone interview. He has enrolled in college and hopes to move out of the shelter soon.

The Iraq vets seeking help with homelessness are more likely to be women, less likely to have substance abuse problems, but more likely to have mental illness -- mostly related to post-traumatic stress, said Pete Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs at the VA.

Overall, 45 percent of participants in the VA's homeless programs have a diagnosable mental illness and more than three out of four have a substance abuse problem, while 35 percent have both, Dougherty said.

Historically, a number of fighters in U.S. wars have become homeless. In the post-Civil War era, homeless veterans sang old Army songs to dramatize their need for work and became known as "tramps," which had meant to march into war, said Todd DePastino, a historian at Penn State University's Beaver campus who wrote a book on the history of homelessness.

After World War I, thousands of veterans -- many of them homeless -- camped in the nation's capital seeking bonus money. Their camps were destroyed by the government, creating a public relations disaster for President Herbert Hoover.

The end of the Vietnam War coincided with a time of economic restructuring, and many of the same people who fought in Vietnam were also those most affected by the loss of manufacturing jobs, DePastino said.

Their entrance to the streets was traumatic and, as they aged, their problems became more chronic, recalled Sister Mary Scullion, who has worked with the homeless for 30 years and co-founded of the group Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia.

"It takes more to address the needs because they are multiple needs that have been unattended," Scullion said. "Life on the street is brutal and I know many, many homeless veterans who have died from Vietnam."

The VA started targeting homelessness in 1987, 12 years after the fall of Saigon. Today, the VA has, either on its own or through partnerships, more than 15,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds for homeless veterans nationwide. It spends about $265 million annually on homeless-specific programs and about $1.5 billion for all health care costs for homeless veterans.

Because of these types of programs and because two years of free medical care is being offered to all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Dougherty said they hope many veterans from recent wars who are in need can be identified early.

"Clearly, I don't think that's going to totally solve the problem, but I also don't think we're simply going to wait for 10 years until they show up," Dougherty said. "We're out there now trying to get everybody we can to get those kinds of services today, so we avoid this kind of problem in the future."

In all of 2006, the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that 495,400 veterans were homeless at some point during the year.

The group recommends that 5,000 housing units be created per year for the next five years dedicated to the chronically homeless that would provide permanent housing linked to veterans' support systems. It also recommends funding an additional 20,000 housing vouchers exclusively for homeless veterans, and creating a program that helps bridge the gap between income and rent.

Following those recommendations would cost billions of dollars, but there is some movement in Congress to increase the amount of money dedicated to homeless veterans programs.

On a recent day in Philadelphia, case managers from Project H.O.M.E. and the VA picked up William Joyce, 60, a homeless Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair who said he'd been sleeping at a bus terminal.

"You're an honorable veteran. You're going to get some services," outreach worker Mark Salvatore told Joyce. "You need to be connected. You don't need to be out here on the streets."

------

Associated Press writer Kathy Matheson contributed to this story from Philadelphia.

http://www.myfoxnewisconsin.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4868903&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.1.1
 

Steve

Well-known member
Because of these types of programs and because two years of free medical care is being offered to all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Dougherty said they hope many veterans from recent wars who are in need can be identified early.

being involved with the VA I get letters form the Va offering assistance,.. telling about programs ect..


I was recently part of a "study" to see problems with the VA,..and it's programs...it wasn't a yes/no type... they wanted real input... and from the feed back and follow up it seems as if they are listening



if there is one program out there fighting for "all" vets... it is the VA.

SO yes ff the VA does support our troops... often way above the call...
 

Steve

Well-known member
Following those recommendations would cost billions of dollars, but there is some movement in Congress to increase the amount of money dedicated to homeless veterans programs.


Hmmm,.. wonder what the hold up is??
 

Tex

Well-known member
You should have heard the hearing on Yahoo's complicity in helping China manipulate Yahoo's (49%) role in helping China manipulate information and truth to control its population.

Several people were imprisoned by the Chinese govt. over this issue.

The oversight committee raked Yahoo on its complicity and failure to support the families of these dissidents while the CEO of Yahoo has raked in millions if not billions of dollars. Yahoo was also caught lying to Congress in previous Congressional hearings.

Companies have no morals and they undermine transparency and truth for MONEY.

At least the oversight committee has caught on the role U.S. companies are playing in this globalist goal making a global elite to run the world.

They need to do more.

Put Yahoo's CEO in JAIL over lying to Congress!!! See how much his billions helps him there!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
The oversight committee raked Yahoo on its complicity and failure to support the families of these dissidents while the CEO of Yahoo has raked in millions if not billions of dollars. Yahoo was also caught lying to Congress in previous Congressional hearings.

Companies have no morals and they undermine transparency and truth for MONEY.

Yep---I watched those hearings-- and that CEO was kind of an arrogant acting young punk (probably Chinese mafia connections :???: ).....Interesting when many of the members (both parties) actually admitted what a decrepit and immoral business world we have became, just in tha name of a fast buck to be made in global trading....
 

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