Soldier's Home : Employment

Beyond Minnesota's Yellow Ribbons

David Botti — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:19:00 GMT

The name behind the Minnesota National Guard's new veterans assistance program says it all: Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. It references the iconic ribbons placed throughout local communities to display solidarity with troops serving overseas. Yet, as countless studies/news reports/personal experiences have shown, the war doesn't end for a veteran simply by returning home.

As a result Minnesota has formed a comprehensive new program aimed at assisting veterans long after they come home. Beyond the Yellow Ribbon guides veterans through everything from making sure one's drivers license hasn't expired, to getting medical check-ups, to resolving conflicts with a spouse. The key here is that it's all under one program, making it (in theory) easy to take advantage of all the program has to offer.

Here's a telling example from the Grand Forks Herald about what kinds of difficulties can arise from a homecoming:

The phone rings in the St. Paul office of Maj. John Morris, a chaplain with the Minnesota National Guard and point man in the Guard's effort to “reintegrate” soldiers returning from Iraq.
The caller is a woman from Crookston, wife of a soldier who came home last summer after an extended tour.
“We've been walking on egg shells, and we can't take it anymore,” she tells Morris, her frustration billowing like black smoke from a sabotaged Iraqi oil well.
“The kids come to me for everything, like they've been doing the past two years,” she said, as Morris recalled the conversation. “He doesn't want to spend time with our friends; he thinks their interests are trivial and they don't know anything about what his life has been like.
“He says, ‘I just want to be with my war buddies.' ”
How can we help? Morris asked her.
“Send him back to Iraq.”

Cue Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. Following this link one can listen to well-thought-out podcast on behavioral health dealing with family issues. Will one podcast resolve the issue? Perhaps not, but it can help the parties begin to think about ways to resolve the conflict.

The Herald also points to the very real notion that it's not always the case that a program like Beyond the Yellow Ribbon will be unconditionally embraced. As one National Guard Chaplin told the paper:

"We took a unit that was extremely hostile - especially after their time in Iraq was extended - and they didn't want any help at all. Soldiers can be very direct, and at first they told us, ‘Hey, this is a bunch of crap. I don't need it.'"

In contrast:

Family members often were more receptive to a helping hand than the returning soldiers were, he said. “They had seen things when the troops were home on leave - things like anger, feelings of isolation. They thought, ‘Boy, this is going to be harder than we thought it would be, pulling this family back together.' ”
Also, family members “had been more exposed to media and had heard stories from other families about soldiers coming back with problems,” Morris said. “They had a better idea of what might be needed.”

According to local news reports so far these two contrasting groups are now beginning meet halfway with the help of the National Guard program. Now lawmakers are seeking to make Beyond the Yellow ribbon a model for other states to follow.

A 2007 Timeline of Veterans News

David Botti — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:42:48 GMT

As the last days of 2007 come upon us, I've compiled a timeline of veterans news throughout the year. What struck me is the vast number of veterans stories pouring out from all media outlets. Will this continue to be the case in 2008? Most likely it will be for the simple fact that the number of Iraq/Afghanistan vets is getting bigger.

Here are selected stories from throughout 2007:

FEBRUARY 18 -- The Washington Post exposes decrepit living conditions for wounded soldiers recovering in Building 18 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center:

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

MARCH 8 -- A New York Times study finds vast inequities in how veterans receive disability checks based on location and type of service.

MARCH 9 -- President Bush forms the Dole-Shalala commission with a mandate to review the military health care system. The group, formed in response to the Walter Reed scandal, includes veterans, advocates, and health administrators.

MAY 22 -- The Associated Press reports a federal court that hears veterans' disability appeals has the highest ever caseload. This is due to the number of disability rejections handed out to vets by the government.

JULY 18 -- VA Secretary Jim Nicholson announces his resignation effective October 1. Nicholson's tenure was plagued by the theft of VA computers and a billion-dollar budget shortfall.

JULY 25 -- The Dole-Shalala commission issues its final report, saying the VA system is insufficient to deal with vets from Afghanistan and Iraq.

SEPTEMBER 19 -- Outgoing VA Secretary Jim Nicholson reports his department is struggling to process disability claims, saying payments can take up to 177 days to make. His hope was for the VA to reduce this time to 145-150 days.

OCTOBER 16 -- Sen. Bob Dole and Donna Shalala write an editorial in the Washington Post outlining their commission's findings:

According to research our commission conducted among wounded and evacuated service members from the current conflicts, the disability rating system at both Defense and Veterans Affairs is poorly understood and is a source of major dissatisfaction. Almost 60 percent of the service members had difficulty understanding the disability evaluation process. Our recommendations would update and simplify the disability determination and compensation system; eliminate parallel activities between the two departments; reduce inequities; and provide injured veterans with the tools to return to productive life.

OCTOBER 18 -- A report by the National Academies says many common PTSD treatments lack scientific evidence that they are effective at treating the problem.

OCTOBER 30 -- A new study by the American Journal of Public Health reports 1.8 million U.S. veterans are uninsured. The number increased by 290,000 from 2000 to 2004.

OCTOBER 30 -- Another study by the American Journal of Public Health reports findings that say younger veterans are more prone to suicide. This is the opposite of suicide trends among the general public.

OCTOBER 30 -- Retired Army Lt. Gen. James Peake is nominated by President Bush for the position of VA Secretary. Peake is a former Army doctor and Vietnam War veteran.

NOVEMBER 8 -- The National Alliance to End Homelessness issues a study finding that one in four veterans are homeless in the United States. Included in this number are 1,500 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

NOVEMBER 11 -- The Associated Press reports the deaths of six U.S. troops in Afghanistan making 2007 the deadliest year for Americans serving in that country since 2001. The deaths brought the number of killed to 101:

...insurgent attacks, advanced ambushes, and suicide and roadside bombs have risen sharply the last two years, and analysts say the counterinsurgency battle U.S. and NATO forces now face will take a decade or more to win.

NOVEMBER 11 -- Veterans Day is marked by a number of protests by vets around the country.

NOVEMBER 14 -- The Journal of the American Medical Association finds veterans are more likely to develop mental health problems three to six months after returning from war, rather than in the months immediately following their return.

NOVEMBER 15 -- The Supreme Court of Canada refuses to hear the cases of U.S. military deserters seeking refuge in the country. The Army desertion rate has risen 80 percent since the Iraq War began in 2003.

DECEMBER 14 -- The Senate confirms retired Lt. Gen. James Peake as the next VA Secretary.

DECEMBER 20 -- J. Russell Coffey, one of only three known living WWI vets in the U.S., dies at the age of 109.

Reservist Employment: "a Walter Reed-like nightmare"

David Botti — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:20:39 GMT

When I got word back in March 2003 that my reserve unit was getting mobilized to Iraq, I was sitting in my cubicle working for a company I’d started at about two weeks earlier. I went in and told my boss, who could hardly hide his displeasure of loosing a recent hire. But he did the right thing and said the job would be waiting when I got back. I never did go back; partly because I didn’t want to be an imposition (where would they put me if someone else was hired in the interim?), and partly because, well, I hated the job.

Now it’s looking like more and more veterans aren’t as lucky as I was to have an understanding boss. Under U.S. law, if a service member is mobilized he/she is entitled to return to the same job, with the same benefits—no questions asked. According to the Associated Press, a 2005-2006 Pentagon survey of reservists released Thursday found 44 percent said they were dissatisfied with the Labor Department’s handling of employment discrimination claims. That’s up from 27 percent in 2004. Here’s the AP’s partial summary of the survey’s findings:

--About 23 percent of reservists reported they did not return to their old jobs in part because their employer did not give them prompt re-employment or their job situation changed in some way while they were on military leave.

--Twenty-nine percent of those choosing not to seek help to get their job back said it was because it was "not worth the fight." Another 23 percent said they were unsure of how to file a complaint. Others cited a lack of confidence that they could win (14 percent); fear of employer reprisal (13 percent), or other reasons (21 percent).

--Reservists reported receiving an average of 1.8 briefings about their job rights and what government resources were available. This is down slightly from the 2.0 briefings they reported getting in 2004.

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of Thursday’s committee meeting held to address this issue with the Labor Department said this about vets looking for government help with job issues:

...veterans who seek help face a Walter Reed-like nightmare—a system that is crumbling and failing to serve them when they need it most. They have to negotiate a maze of bureaucracy. They can be shuffled among multiple agencies—only to find after all the bureaucratic run-around that they still may have to pay a lawyer to file their case in court.

The Labor Department agreed there were problems, but stated:

…the solution was to better educate employers — not litigate more cases in court. Most disputes can be resolved with a phone call to an employer explaining what the law is.

According to Sen. Kennedy’s press release, he plans to introduce legislation that holds federal agencies responsible for protecting veterans’ employment rights, as well as setting up a uniform way to collect their employment data.