As the economy slowly continues to improve, the unemployment rate for the country as a whole is improving with it. Unfortunately for the veterans who have served in the year following the September 11 attacks, this is not the case. In January, the unemployment rate for post-9/11 vets stood at 11.7 percent, a significant increase from the 9.9 percent in December. It's certainly not easy to transition from military to civilian life, and those who have gone through it have one piece of advice – start planning early.
Lay the groundwork early
Soldiers preparing to separate from service may think they shouldn't start their job search in earnest until they leave the Armed Forces. However, former Army medic Dan Huber says nothing could be further from the truth. According to The Associated Press, he has had trouble finding a job since leaving the military, and he says that waiting too long to plan was one of the biggest mistakes he made, something he made sure to share with his fellow servicemembers.
"I've told them: 'Hey, man, you guys have really got to start planning months and months in advance," he told the AP. "It's not just planning for interviews. It's planning to make sure you'll be afloat in this time period, which you don't know how long will take.'"
Problem being addressed
Despite the high numbers, there has been a considerable amount of work done to help lower the unemployment rate among the country's youngest vets. Along with the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, which passed Congress in 2011 and provides training assistance to servicemembers, lawmakers are also working on a new bill in the early days of 2013. According to Military Times, the bill's chief component would be an extension of the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP), which provides up to a year's worth of GI Bill benefits to help a soldier learn a new, marketable skill. The proposed bill includes a number of other provisions as well, such as a grant meant to hire veterans as police officers. Government officials also want to craft a single, federal website designed to help veterans find jobs.
Where to look?
One of the biggest challenges facing veterans looking for jobs is that they may not know where the best places are. The AFBA Career Center helps reduce some of those obstacles by connective job seekers with potential employers.
As sequestration draws closer, President Barack Obama spoke directly to Congress on Tuesday and called on lawmakers to act now to avoid the drastic cuts that could greatly hurt servicemembers and first responders. Decrying the "meat cleaver" approach (the sequester would result in automatic cuts of $85 billion), Obama said the economic impact of inaction will be significant.
The statements come just 10 days before the March 1 deadline and echo the sentiments Obama has conveyed over the last two months. He says that Congress should agree on a balanced approach to debt reduction that would include both spending cuts and increases in revenue from closing tax loopholes. Failing to do these could have a dramatic impact on everything from military readiness to flu vaccines, Obama noted.
"These cuts are not smart, they are not fair," he said. "This is not an abstraction – people will lose their jobs. These cuts, known here in Washington as sequestration, are a bad idea."
While it remains to be seen whether the cuts will be enacted, that has not assuaged any fears among the military community. According to Military.com, the cuts could impact everything from local schools for families of servicemembers to vital programs for soldiers.
As French troops continue the fight in Mali against al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the United States remains committed to not becoming directly involved, but some foreign policy experts say that it may become increasingly difficult to stay that way, USA Today reports.
Obama administration officials recently said that while the extremist group, which is al-Qaeda's North African franchise, pose a threat to American interests, they believe that sending American troops is not the right move. Instead, the military will lend support through financial aid and intelligence gathering. Some advisors say the approach is enough for the time being, but the policy may need to change.
"At some point the U.S. may have to ratchet up the instruments it deploys – including possibly targeting key AQIM leaders in order to throw the extremists into disarray – in order to buy time for [political work", J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa program at the Atlantic Council, told the publication.
French-led forces have made considerable progress over the last several weeks. Joined by Malian troops, they have retaken many of the country's major cities including Gao, which was recently lost to insurgents, reports The Guardian.
As Congress inches closer to the March 1 deadline for sequestration, many of the military’s top officials are warning lawmakers of the potential impact the across-the-board budget cuts could have. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno recently told legislators that the spending cuts could extend deployments to Afghanistan, according to Military.com.
Sequestration would require the Pentagon to cut about $46 billion from its 2013 budget, and doing so may require troops stationed overseas to serve longer than originally planned. Odierno says that not having enough money would reduce the Army’s ability to send replacement soldiers, something that could weigh heavily on troops and their families.
“We cannot fund the group that comes after them,” he told Congress earlier this week. “So what that means is the initial replacements that go in at the beginning of 2014 are funded – those that would come in later in the year are not.”
Sequestration would not only hurt deployed troops, it could also drastically impact the National Guard as well, the Army reports. Gen. Frank Grass recently told the Senate Armed Service Committee that the cuts would reduce the Guard’s ability to respond to natural disasters and other domestic emergencies.
Properly addressing mental health is one of the biggest concerns of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), but some experts say the organization may be going about it the wrong way. Specifically, instead of spending more money and hiring more staff members, the VA may want to look into how they are utilizing the resources they already have, according to Military Times.
More spending does not equal better results
The new recommendations come from a bipartisan House committee as well as a group of veterans advocates who feel that the VA should focus on strengthening ties within the community and reaching out to already-existing health networks to address the mental well-being of servicemembers. They point to statistics that found despite the fact the budget for mental healthcare has increased by 39 percent since 2007, the number of vets taking their own lives has increased. One of the biggest issues in the current policies is a prolonged waiting period.
“Less than a year ago, the VA inspector general released a review of veterans’ mental health care access … showing the majority of veterans who seek mental health care through VA wait 50 days,” Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the veterans’ committee, said during a recent hearing. “That figure amounts to thousands of veterans in need.”
A significant issue
The mental health problems among soldiers have certainly not gone unnoticed by the VA. In fact, earlier this week the department announced the hiring of more than 1,000 mental health providers. Still, while there is an effort on the part of the VA, it’s clear that experts may need to rethink their policies, especially since an estimated 1.3 million veterans sought mental health treatment during 2012.
What can be done?
Identifying the challenges facing the VA’s mental health treatment is one thing, but developing methods to accurately address the issue is much more difficult. There have been a number of studies conducted in recent years to determine the best treatments to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One of the most recent was focused on determining whether a method known as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) could help treat the disorder. Published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, the research revealed that EFT, a form of counseling that focuses on alternative therapy, had a positive impact on an estimated 80 percent of veterans who participated in the study.
On Tuesday, President Obama’s State of the Union address attracted a great deal of attention, but it was his announcement of the withdrawal of 34,000 troops from Afghanistan over the next year that arguably garnered the most attention. This was especially true among military families, many of whom are waiting for their loved ones to return from overseas.
While the news that their family members may be coming home is certainly encouraging, some members of the military community are cautiously optimistic, reports ABC affiliate WTVD. Joi Williams, whose husband is currently in Afghanistan, said that she’s happy Obama made the announcement but she’s going to temper her expectations for now.
“I’m excited, but to be perfectly honest, I’ll believe it once I see it,” Williams told the news channel. “I want to see my husband get off that plane.”
There are currently about 66,000 United States troops in Afghanistan, all of whom are expected to be out of the country by the end of 2014. While that’s the plan for now, there is still the lingering question of whether there will be any military presence left in the country after the U.S. officially withdraws.
A historic blizzard hit New England last weekend, and while most emergency responders were focused on snow removal, some members of the Massachusetts National Guard were helping out in a much different way. Called into action during the early hours of February 9, when the storm was at its worst, the Guardsmen helped a local woman give birth, reports The Boston Globe.
A call came into local emergency services at around 2:30 a.m. from Ericka Bueno, who reported she had started going into labor. At this point, snow was pummeling the Bay State, but the National Guard’s Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 181st Infantry Regiment helped first responders get to her residence in around 10 minutes. After delivering Bueno’s child in her home, emergency responder escorted her to the hospital.
“It’s just good to know that we had so many people behind us – that it wasn’t just the EMTs, that we had the National Guard there,” Bueno told the Globe. “I was just a regular person giving birth, and they went and they shoveled us out and they made sure that we made it to the hospital,” according to the Globe.
Given the scope of the storm, the response time and relative ease of the delivery was certainly impressive. On February 9, Boston received 14.8 inches of snow, the most in a one-day period the city has ever had.
President Barack Obama gave his fifth State of the Union address on Tuesday night, and he touched on everything from healthcare spending to immigration reform. However, members of the military community were likely most interested in what he had to say about the future of defense spending and America’s role in Afghanistan. He discussed both issues at length as well as the progress that’s been made in the more than decade-long fight against al-Qaida and the increasing threat of cyberterrorism.
Spending cuts take center stage
The address was given under the continuing threat of sequestration, harmful across-the-board budget cuts, which will be enacted on March 1 if Congress cannot agree on a deficit reduction strategy. The Pentagon will take the brunt of these deep cuts, and as he has done for much of the last 18 months, Obama called on members of both parties to compromise so that the Armed Forces can remain as capable in the future as they are now. Sequestration would result in an additional $500 billion in budget cuts over the next 10 years, which is on top of the already established $487 billion cut over that same time period.
Changes to military culture
Obama also touched on the fact that the Armed Forces has seen great strides over the last two years when it comes to being more inclusive. He touted the recent Pentagon announcement that women can serve in combat roles, along with making reference to the repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell” mid-way through his first term. However, he said there was still considerable work to be done.
“We will ensure equal treatment for all servicemembers, and equal benefits for their families – gay and straight,” he told a joint session of Congress. “We will draw upon
the courage and skills of our sisters and daughters, because women have proven under fire that they are ready for combat.”
The future of the military
Spending cuts aside, the role the U.S. military will play in the coming decades is changing, Obama said. Along with announcing the withdrawal of 34,000 troops from Afghanistan over the next year, he also hinted at offering assistance to embattled nations such as Libya, Somalia and Yemen. He also detailed a new executive order meant to strengthen the country’s cyber-security to protect it from outside attacks.
Ending American involvement in Afghanistan has been one of the cornerstones of President Barack Obama’s agenda since he took office, and he is expected to announce the next step in that plan during his State of the Union on Tuesday night. Officials familiar with his speech say that he will call for 34,000 troops to be removed from the embattled nation by early 2014, according to CBS News.
The announcement will come amid continued concerns surrounding whether or not Afghan forces will be able to take over security once the United States hands over the reins. However, the White House official who offered the glimpse at Obama’s speech painted a more optimistic picture of the future of Afghan soldiers.
“Afghan forces continue to grow stronger, with 352,000 now in training or on duty,” the administration official said. “Afghan forces are leading nearly 90 percent of operations across the country, and by this spring, they’ll be assuming the lead across the entire country, with the United States and ISAF stepped back to a train, advise and assist role.”
There are currently an estimated 66,000 American forces in Afghanistan, which makes up the large majority of 100,000 international troops still stationed there. The current plans have soldiers leaving the country by the end of 2014. In fact, the United States has already taken steps to remove some of its military hardware, according to Pakistan’s The Express Tribune. Earlier this week, convoys of containers holding U.S. equipment started to make their way out of Afghanistan and into Pakistan.
While most Pentagon officials have agreed on the 2014 deadline, there is still some uncertainty over whether the U.S. will have any presence, even a minimal one, after they officially withdraw. There have been a number of conflicting reports, which have put the number of troops remaining in Afghanistan at as little as 1,000 or as many as 20,000. Still, The New York Times reported earlier this year that Obama was weighing the possibility of leaving no troops behind.
If past addresses are any indication, Afghanistan will likely not be the only mention of the troops during Obama’s speech. During his inauguration in January, he spoke about the importance of taking care of veterans once they return home.
Members of the military and their families face many challenges other than combat. Effective training, transitioning to civilian life and suicide prevention are all serious issues in the community, and Army Secretary John McHugh recently signed a directive to implement some recommendations from the forthcoming findings from the Behavioral Health Task Force, according to Army News Service.
Known as the “Ready and Resilient” campaign, the initiative will be a broad undertaking. Among its chief provisions is one that will call for any programs designed to target resiliency will fall under the control of a single authority in an effort to reduce confusion. Additionally, McHugh says the programs will address everything from domestic abuse to removing the stigma attached to seeking help.
“We’re trying to teach soldiers it’s OK to reach out for help,” McHugh told reporters. “You don’t just do that in a class or two to a young soldier. It really has to be a career-long progression.”
The Behavioral Health Task Force was authorized last year by McHugh in an effort to better understand the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. The findings are particularly important now, given that in 2012, 325 servicemembers took their own lives, which was a record number.