Supporting the Troops?

This isn’t really off-topic, because health effects are associated with the stress from job uncertainty. In today’s Washington Post, we learn that service personnel returning from overseas are having difficulty finding jobs – even Reserve and Guard personnel, who you would have thought should have had their jobs held open for them.

Nearly every day he was in Iraq, Army Staff Sgt. Steven Cummings would get so shaken by mortar round explosions that, even now, a year after his return home, he drops to the ground at the crackle of lightning.

Iraq had a big impact on Cummings in another way _ his finances. In his absence, his wife took out two mortgages on their home in Milan, Mich. They fell $15,000 in debt, as the pay Cummings earned during his 14 months overseas was less than he had made as a civilian electrical controls engineer.

Looking back, those almost seem like the good times.

Cummings has been laid off from two jobs in the year since he left Iraq. While other reasons were given for the layoffs, Cummings thinks both were related to his duty in the Michigan National Guard and the time off it requires.

Like some other veterans who have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq, he is struggling to find work.

"I don't know what I'm going to do now. I'm in the exact position I was when I came back from Iraq," said Cummings, a father of two. "I'm 50 years old and I have a mortgage payment due. I'm tired of it."

Although many employers take pride in hiring veterans and make up any pay an employee lost while deployed, some are reluctant to hire reservists and Guard members who might have to deploy again, said Bill Gaul, chief officer at Destiny Group, an online organization that seeks to match employers and veterans.

Almost 490,000 troops from the Guard and reserve have mobilized since Sept. 11, 2001, overseas or for duty in-country. Of those, about 320,000 have completed their mobilization.

The number of unemployed Guard members and reservists who served in Iraq is unclear because the Labor Department will not begin gathering data specifically on post-Sept. 11 veterans until August. The unemployment rate for veterans of all wars was 4.6 percent last year, the department said, compared with an overall unemployment rate of 5.5 percent.

Some in Congress are sponsoring legislation to give tax credits to employers who hire veterans, which should help. Is it really necessary to bribe businesses to hire returning vets (or for that matter, give them a break on their debts) when they have sacrificed their health, careers and finances in service of their country? As I’ve asked before, are American businessmen really this ethically color-blind?