Home from War
For the next year, the Dayton Daily News will follow the lives of a number of U.S. soldiers from the Dayton, Springfield, Middletown and Hamilton areas who have recently returned from the war in Afghanistan. We’ll follow them as they reunite with their families, cope with employment issues and negotiate the challenges of obtaining benefits.
Online employment resources for veterans
Careers: www.vacareers.va.gov
Veterans Employment and Training Service (Department of Labor): www.dol.gov/vets/
VA employment website for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans: www.oefoif.va.gov/employment.asp
Post 9/11 GI Bill: www.gibill.va.gov
Vow to hire heroes act 2011: benefits.va.gov/vow/index.htm
Unemployment services at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services: jfs.ohio.gov/ouc
Tens of thousands of American veterans will be celebrating Veterans Day today without the one thing they want the most — a job.
The jobless rate for post-9/11 veterans hovers at 10 percent, well above the 7.9-percent national average. The unemployment rate for all veterans — 8.3 percent — is more in line with the national average, highlighting the greater difficulties facing soldiers now coming home from war.
Sgt. Pat Wright of Beavercreek has been looking for work as an EMT or a surveyor since coming home from Afghanistan on Sept. 9. “There’s no advantage to being a veteran in the job market,” he said. “A lot of advertisements say there’s support, but it only exists within the veteran community. If you’re not a veteran, you don’t really know what it means to be a veteran.”
Concurred Sgt. Rard Hamber of Springfield, “It’s like the forgotten war.”
After the euphoria of being reunited with his wife, Jamie and their three children, Wright came face to face with the realities of the job market. “I don’t understand what is going on around me,” Hamber said. “The work force that was here five years ago has just disappeared.”
Wright said he would face better odds if he were willing to move to a different market, but he doesn’t want to do that to his family. “I do miss working every day and having a goal,” he explained, “but I would miss my family more.”
Other veterans have had better luck. Kristen Brown, 23, of Middletown, starts a new job Monday as office manager at Quality Waterproofing in Monroe, two months after coming home from Afghanistan. “It’s perfect timing because things are starting to settle down for me, and I had spent all the money I was prepared to spend.”
Brown said that her military background helped her to land the job. “The owner was prior military, and he was very excited about my being military,” she said.
Battlefield vs. civilian experience
For female veterans, the challenge to land a full-time job remains tougher since their unemployment rate is currently at 15.5, compared to 9.2 for male veterans.
Wright said that he applies for several jobs every week and that most positions have 200 to 300 applicants. Most applications are filed online. “It’s not a person-to-person market any more,” he said. “I feel like a nameless face in the crowd. I miss the old days, when you could sit down and have a talk.”
Wright worked as a medic with the Ohio Army National Guard in Afghanistan, but most employers are looking for EMTs with experience in the civilian world rather than the battlefield. “I think it should count for experience in the job market,” he said.
He’s far from the only one who feels that way.
During the presidential debates, President Barack Obama promoted the idea of certifying veterans who have the battlefield skills but not the proper certification for certain skilled trades.
In addition, new legislation co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, will allow some service members to get commercial driver’s licenses, or CDLs, where they are stationed, making them qualified for commercial truck driving jobs when they return home. Previously, the law required people to get CDLs in their home states, and licenses obtained in other states are non-transferable.
“There are tens of thousands of openings in this country for truck drivers, but the problem is there are not enough people trained to do it,” Brown said at a union hall in Dayton recently. “Soon, people who were trained in the military to drive trucks will be able to use that training to more quickly get their commercial drivers licenses in Ohio or wherever they live.”
Such legislative initiatives make a lot of sense, according to Bill Wall, program manager of The Freedom Center at the Dayton VA Medical Center, which serves as a post-deployment clinic for veterans.
“Veterans have been telling their representatives that this is one of the biggest challenges they face — having the skills to do the job but not the certificate or the piece of paper that can prove it,” Wall said. “For instance, to become a certified drug and alcohol counselor in Ohio, they would want you to have a licensed chemical dependency counselor certification. A person on military side might have the same credentials and experiences, but not the right license.”
Consequently, veterans with job-ready skills can endure long periods of unemployment that can exact both a psychic and financial toll. They can suffer from depression and anxiety, Wall said.
“People feel like a failure,” he said. “They keep running into obstacles that affect their self-esteem in a negative way, because our culture places a high value on employment. Soldiers have been contributing on a very high level, yet suddenly feel they aren’t contributing to their family and community. They feel they have let their family down.”
In honor of National "Hire a Vet Month," the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base conducted a Veteran's Job Fair at the Wright State University Nutter Center, attracting some 80 employers as well as hundreds of veterans, active duty military, reservists, and Department of Defense civilian employees.
Jennifer Kostic of Sinclair Community College’s human resources department said the job fair attracted a number of qualified applicants for adjunct professors. “They have leadership training and a diversity of experience,” she explained. “They have demonstrated the ability to achieve in a stressful environment.”
Concurred Sinclair aviation professor Don Stark, “They show up for work. Believe it or not, even in today’s job market that is a rare quality.”
Employers benefit when they hire veterans, according to Alvin Dennis, a community readiness specialist with the WPAFB Airman and Family Readiness Center. “Veterans bring a work ethic to the job, as well as leadership and management skills you don’t find every day,” he said.
Making the adjustment
Some skills, however, don’t translate easily into the civilian world, so the Job Fair featured many trade schools and community and online colleges so veterans can beef up their skills. “There isn’t too much demand for people who can drive tanks with high-powered guns,” Dennis said.
Rard Hamber feels lucky in many respects — he has two supportive employers, the Chase Bank branch in Xenia and the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office, which have welcomed him back with open arms. But the 6’6” guardsman has acute Achilles tendonitis, a painful condition that make it impossible for him to stand for long hours at the bank office. “A lot of employers cut the veterans loose, but Chase has been really good to me, and so has the Champaign Country Sheriff’s Office,” Hamber said.
He’s more than busy, raising his daughter Alanna, 6, son Malachi, 9, and going to school full-time at the Columbus branch of the University of Phoenix to pursue a degree in nursing home administration. He is working part-time as a deputy with the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office and hopes to land a full-time job soon.
His fiance, Debbie Lonsway, said that Hamber has reduced the stress of his medical condition by a frugal lifestyle and careful savings. “Even in the combat zone, you should be planning your life,” he said.
Hamber believes that returning vets should be given more respect. “I went to the Bengals game last Sunday people acted like it was a big chore to stand up during the National Anthem,” he said. “I’m thinking, ‘My buddies died, and you can’t stand up for the National Anthem?”
Wall said that veterans deserve more respect on the employment line as well.
“We talk about freedom and other things that are core values of the USA,” he said. “Yet there is less than 1 percent of the population who salute smartly when the President decides to deploy. They write a blank check on their lives. They leave their pets, their businesses and their families behind, often for multiple deployments. Our society needs to share in welcoming them back, and one of the most important things is to make sure they have jobs.”
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