Life in the military can be difficult enough without having to worry about employment opportunities for a soldier's life after service. Thankfully, several recent statistics point to the beginning of the end for the alarming trend of high unemployment rate among recent and long-time veterans alike.

A helping hand from the private sector
In 2011, a group of 11 companies that included JPMorgan Chase, AT&T, Verizon and EMC announced that they would be partnering to form the 100,000 Jobs Mission in order to hire 100,000 military veterans by the year 2020. According to a press release from the group, the unemployment rate for the U.S. sat at 8.9 percent at the time of the announcement, with the smaller and disproportionately affected sample size of veterans at 9.2 percent.

Just shy of three years since the group's formation, it has met – and surpassed – its goal. The Military Times reported that not only has the group's number of member companies skyrocketed from the original 11 to the current 131, but that they have hired 117,439 veterans in a variety of industries across the country.  The wild success the program has experienced in reaching its goal seven years ahead of schedule prompted the companies to double down on their original pledge.

They now promise to hire an additional 100,000 veterans before the decade is out.

Decreasing numbers, increasing hope
The success of the 100,000 Jobs Mission is indicative of a larger trend within the community of unemployed veterans, both young and old – they are finding jobs.

The unemployment rate for veterans who served after 9/11 hit its high-water mark in January 2012 when the number spiked to 12 percent, according to the Washington Post. A year and a half later in November 2013, the number for overall unemployment had fallen to 6.7 percent and the most recent numbers show a continued decrease to 5.5 for December.

The post-9/11 veteran unemployment numbers may seem more drastic – they fell from 9.9 percent to 7.3 percent from November to December – but with a smaller sample size, the month-to-month statistics of the group will change more rapidly. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recommends looking at the annual figures for the group instead, but even there the news is good: from December 2012 to 2013, the rate dropped 3.5 percentage points.

Where are the jobs coming from?
It can be easy to chalk job growth up to the improving economy, but several key factors have led to more and more veterans finding employment for life after the military. While many companies have been happy to hire combat veterans for their experience and skills, employers and prospective employees alike have found it somewhat difficult to transfer their abilities directly to the civilian workforce.

As the Washington Post explains, "The 10,000 military healthcare workers or 10,000 military truck drivers who left the armed services last year often have to pass new tests and go through a fresh set of licensing hurdles in order to get a job as a civilian EMT or truck driver – even if they already have the required skills."

The licensing requirements are largely bureaucratic but a costly and time-consuming hurdle for many veterans who have already been living off unemployment checks for months. As a result, the White House released a report entitled, "The Fast Track to Civilian Employment," which outlined several measures in which they would streamline the process for veterans to receive workable credentials for skills gained in the military.

In addition, several Congressman have initiated programs such as the Veterans Conservation Corps, which seeks to employ retired military men and women in "wildfire protection, recreation enhancement, and habitat restoration."

With programs along those lines and another 100,000 jobs on the way from successful corporations, expect the unemployment rate among all veterans to decrease well into the future.

With the increasingly prevalent use of drones and unmanned vehicles in operations around the globe, some top officials are rethinking how soldiers are rewarded for their service.

Despite backlash in 2013 after announcing a medal specific to drone pilots and soldiers whose deeds are performed from remote locations, Stars and Stripes reported that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered a full review of all medals awarded for valor and courage on the battlefield. That specific award was scrapped, but some critics think that this review might open the door for more like it.

It's no question that drone missions have been crucial in the United States' operations abroad. The New York Times explained how the 2011 raid of Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound could not have been accomplished without the reconnaissance of an RQ-170 drone. The question at hand is whether to give the commendation to the robot or to the soldier who piloted it hundreds of miles away.

"We are all for proper recognition," Joe Davis of the Washington VFW told Stars and Stripes. "And we believe in protecting the rank order of those medals that can only be earned in a combat zone, and keeping them at their higher precedence."

Veteran homelessness is one of the country's hardest problems to address, but Phoenix might have found the answer.

The specific number is hard to nail down, but according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are upwards of 60,000 homeless veterans on any given night in the U.S., or about 12 percent of the adult homeless population.  Until last year, Phoenix had about 220 veterans without a stable living situation, Mayor Greg Stanton told USA Today.

Thanks to new funds from the Federal stimulus that allowed for more affordable housing and a new policy toward mental health and substance abuse, the city has housed nearly all veterans once without a home.

"In a housing first model," Stanton explained, "we understand that if someone has been on the streets for a long time, and been abusing drugs or alcohol for a long time, it may take awhile for them to be able to break that issue in their lives."

Other low-cost housing models immediately revoked support if drugs or alcohol were found to still be part of a veteran's life after service, but Phoenix has opted to aid veterans to a more healthy phase of their lives.

The program has been a wild success, with retention rates well above the 90 percent mark.

As part of the government-wide budget passed in 2013, the veterans benefits that governed the year-to-year adjustment for cost-of-living, or COLA, was to decrease 1 percent annually. After intense backlash from the veterans' affairs community, several Senators voiced their opinions against the provision on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, USA Today reports.

"I believe that the COLA reduction is wrong," Armed Services Committee chair Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said, "because it targets a single group – military retirees – to help address the budget problems of the federal government as a whole."

While a 1 percent annual reduction of pension funds may not seem like a large amount at first glance, the Marine Corps Times provides a breakdown of the long-term impact of the cuts. An E-7 retiree with over two decades of service stands to lose upwards of $100,000 by age 62, while the numbers only climb for officers.

"You don't join the military to get rich," retired Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Roy told the Marine Corps Times. "We're still fighting a war, and now we are talking about reducing the COLA? I don't get it."

At home or abroad, at peace or in battle, a dog is a man's best friend.

Nobody knows that better now than Sgt. Eric Goldenthal and Corky, the bomb-sniffing dog embedded into his unit. The pair swept through eastern Afghanistan, clearing out hidden explosives to open the path for a squad of Green Berets. Goldenthal, Corky and the rest of the unit continually fought off heavy resistance, Stars and Stripes writes, until Jan. 19 when Goldenthal and Corky were caught between three directions of fire in an ambush.

"And that's when me and him got hit, pretty much the exact same time," Goldenthal recalled. "I just felt it hit the back of my leg and then I heard him crying."

The injuries did not prove life threatening, allowing for a reunion between Goldenthal and Corky at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

The critical role dogs serve in the military extends beyond combat situations, however. Emerging studies continually show how dogs trained as mobility assistance animals can help soldiers ease back into life after military service, the Smithsonian has found. As some veterans experience trouble finding an emotional balance during peacetime, dogs have been shown to markedly improve the quality of life of those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

It takes a special kind of person to join the military, but it takes a much different sort to volunteer for a mission to Mars.

For a few select soldiers, life after service won't be about transitioning back to civilian life but adjusting to the harsh terrain and low oxygen on the surface of the Red Planet. The Department of Defense spoke to two members of the military who have made it to the final round of candidates for Mars One, a one-way mission that hopes to colonize the planet for long-term human habitation.

Out of 200,000 applicants, Mars One selected 1,058 finalists. That number includes MC2 Brooks Slaughter and 1st Lt. Heidi Beemer. As finalists, they will begin a ten-year training period that includes lessons in self-sustaining farming, component repair for the modules they'll be living in and basic medical procedures, according to the Mars One website.

Still, many might see a one-way ticket to Mars as an odd choice for a soldier's life after military service. Not for Slaughter and Beemer, though, who couldn't be more thrilled with the opportunity.

"I believe that when it does happen," Beemer told the DoD's Science blog, "it's going to be the biggest thing that ever happens to us as humans."

Members of the Indiana Senate are currently pushing a measure that would extend education benefits to military veterans who are trying to transition to life after service. 

A senate committee has approved an amendment that would allow veterans to use courses and equivalency exams they took in the military as credit toward their degrees at state colleges and universities, The Associated Press reported. The measure will also encourage veterans to pursue teaching careers, and mandate that higher education institutions provide financial aid to all veterans admitted.

Amendment author state Sen. Jim Banks stated that the proposed legislation will help veterans by letting them apply what they learned in the military to their educational and occupational goals.

Indiana is just one of many states that's determined to provide support for veterans pursuing college degrees – a population that continues to grow as more servicemembers return from war in large numbers. According to NPR, the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill has helped around 860,000 veterans in its first three years. Sarah Yaw, who works with veterans at Cayuga Community College in upstate New York, told the news source that the college saw a 400 percent increase in enrolled veterans between 2009 and 2012. 

The intelligence agency, which has been in the news as of late, may soon have a new military man in charge.

Gen. Keith Alexander is scheduled to step down from his position atop the National Security Agency in mid-March, creating a void many expect Navy Vice Adm. Mike Rogers to fill. Seemingly always in the headlines after former-consultant Edward Snowden's disclosure of surveillance programs, the Military Times reported that Rogers is expected to continue many of his predecessor's programs but with greater transparency to the public.

As a sign of the Obama administration's preference for a new direction, the Columbus Dispatch reports that the President himself interviewed Rogers last week. If confirmed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, Rogers will be the latest uniformed serviceman to helm the NSA as part of a 62-year-long stretch of such appointments.

Rogers appears to have all the right credentials to lead the nation's highest intelligence agency in a time when public confidence in it is flagging. His official Naval biography lists degrees with distinction and honors from Auburn University, the National War College, the Naval War College as well as a Masters of Science in National Security strategy.

Currently, Rogers serves as head of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and the director of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Pacific Command.

In an effort to allay some of the concerns of Team USA , Uncle Sam will be looking out for them when they travel to Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Amidst terrorist attacks in Volgograd and further threats against the events in Sochi by militant groups, the Pentagon has pledged to aid Russian security agencies in their efforts to protect the athletes and spectators of the 22nd Winter Games, according to Business Week. It may not be empty talk, either – during a meeting between Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and Russian General Valery Gerasimov in Brussels, the U.S. is reported to have lent Russian authorities equipment designed to detect homemade explosive devices.

The threat is real enough for most athletes and their families to consider the risks of traveling to Sochi, a resort town only a few hundred miles from the long-unstable North Caucasus area of the country.

Fred Evans' daughter Aja will be competing as part of Team USA's bobsled contingent and though he had the opportunity to watch his daughter chase the gold in person, he passed.

"What I like is the fact that there's coverage of this," Evans told the Washington Post from his Chicago home. "What I like is the advice people are getting. What I don't like is that it could be a reality."

Since the Pentagon lifted its ban on women serving in combat last year, the military has been gradually adjusting to the new roles of female soldiers. While the military has witnessed many milestones recently, including the first three female soldiers to pass the Marine Corps combat training course, one challenge that remains is physical fitness.

Marine officials are still unsure whether female soldiers will be able to complete the pullup portion of the Physical Fitness Test, a new service-wide standard of fitness, according to Military Times. Currently, female Marines are not required to perform pullups when taking the test, but have the option to do either pullups or the traditional flexed-arm hang. 

Officials have decided to delay any changes to the PFT to June 30, and any modifications made to the test won't be enacted until January 2015. A Marine spokesperson told the news source that female soldiers can continue to choose between pullups or the flexed-arm hang until then.

The delay "allows more time for studies to be done to determine exactly when the Marine Corps will make a decision on when and whether or not pull-ups will be instituted in the female PFT," Marine spokesperson Capt. Maureen Krebs said, as quoted by the news source.

Nearly 14,000 women serve on active-duty status in the Marine Corps, and comprise approximately 6.8 percent of the branch, according to data compiled by the Department of Defense.