FOR around 550 American servicemen, today marks the start of something new: a return to civilian life. That is the number of veterans who leave the military every day, on average. As America draws down from a decade of remote warfare, the armed forces are expected to shed nearly 250,000 soldiers a year over the next five years. Some of these men and women will return wounded in some way. Most will face the challenge of finding a new job and learning new skills.
The government is trying to help. The Defence Department, the Labour Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs have worked to upgrade the programme that prepares soldiers for the rigours of life at home. Everyone leaving the military is now required to go through "Transition GPS", a days-long course that teaches soon-to-be veterans how to prepare a resume and apply for jobs. The goal is to help them translate their battlefield skills into something that works in a cubicle.
Promisingly, companies are eager to hire former servicemen. Employers think veterans are dependable and hard-working, and they admire their leadership qualities. In 2011 a handful of firms began a veteran employment project, with the goal of hiring 100,000 veterans by 2020. Now the coalition has more than 170 companies, and is on-target to double the original goal by the end of the year. Despite some national ambivalence towards America's military role in Afghanistan and Iraq, veterans today are certainly treated better than the soldiers who returned home from Vietnam and Korea, says one young Army officer who has just finished his transition course. Ex-servicemen now are saluted, and often preferred for jobs in both the private and public sector. The veteran unemployment rate is 4.5%, whereas the non-veteran rate is 5.4%.
But for wounded soldiers, the transition to civilian life is far less smooth. Veterans who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—some 11% of servicemen who served in Afghanistan and 20% of those from Iraq—have a tougher time finding stable jobs. Employers are unsure of how to accommodate their needs, and are suspicious of their ability to cope with the stresses and demands of normal work. As a result, ex-soldiers are often keen to avoid a PTSD diagnosis, for fear they will be turned down for jobs, so often the problem goes untreated.
Even when disabled veterans seek the proper care, applications often take months to process. Many end up going without the extra help. The VA’s programme for getting disabled veterans into jobs, for example, fell short of its goals last year, in part due to “uninformed leadership and administrative barriers” that “reduced effectiveness”. Indeed, it is hard to judge the merits of most of the government’s 99 separate transition programmes, as performance data is scarce and coordination is minimal.
These problems hit the youngest veterans the hardest. A fifth of ex-servicemen aged 18 to 24 are out of work. They are also more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD than older soldiers. Homelessness and suicide are growing problems. This makes Veterans Day a cheerless holiday for far too many veterans.
