Do not be afraid to hire a veteran

Fear comes from the unknown. Good things can come out of the thing we fear the most. Today is Christmas and we hear the story of how Christ was born. Beginning with the angels trying to calm the nerves as a strange star appeared,

Luke 2:10
New International Version (NIV)
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

and then they knew there was nothing to be afraid of. Something good was happening but if the angels didn't reassure them, they may have run away.

The odds of hiring a veteran with PTSD are one out of three. The odds of regretting you did are just about zilch. Why? For starters you have to understand the truth in numbers. With two million veterans coming from from Iraq and Afghanistan, how many of them are causing trouble? Few. How many non-veterans are getting into trouble? More. The thing is, you fear what you don't understand. Good things come out of hiring veterans.

First, the tax break your company gets. Then you have someone not afraid to work hard, put in long hours, think fast on their feet plus able to work as a team on whatever you give them to do. They show up ready to work, without whining and they are grateful to have a job where they don't have to worry about being blown up by a bomb. They are the best type of employee you could ask for. Just as Uncle Sam.

An average person can walk in off the street, appear to be just right for the job, then you discover something horrible happened in their past that has a hold on them. PTSD can hit anyone after a traumatic event, like a car accident or as a victim of a crime. You have no clue when you interview them but it never dawns on you to ask them simply because you've known other people changed by events in their lives but you are not afraid of them. Well, you don't have to fear a veteran any more than you have to fear someone else.

Most need help to heal from where they've been and a good place to start is to give them a job to do. Make them feel needed. Give them a chance to make a living and take care of their families.

PTSD is nothing to be afraid of and I speak of this with experience. I've been married to one with PTSD for 27 years and he's one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet. He came home from Vietnam and worked in construction, for a cable company and then as a public employee. He was on that job for 18 years and was one of the first they'd call in for round the clock snow removal. This is with PTSD. No one ever regretted hiring him.

They have to prove themselves the way any other employee does. So why the hesitation when you can really show you appreciate the fact they were willing to go where few dare and suffer hardships few are willing to do for a job the government hired them to do?

After military service, younger veterans are trained, tested and JOBLESS
By CHRIS CHURCHILL, Business writer
Published 01:35 p.m., Saturday, December 24, 2011

One hundred and ten soldiers from the Fredericksburg-based Company A, 116th Brigade Special Troops Battalion return from deployment in Iraq to the armory building in Fredericksburg, Va. on Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/The Free Lance-Star, Reza A. Marvashti)

Natesha Lovell left for Iraq in 2004, the sole woman in her U.S. Army Reserve deployment. She returned safely, but life sincethen hasn't been easy.

The former supply sergeant has been unemployed since 2008, and now finds herself without a home. She crashes at a friend's place in Clifton Park.

Lovell is one of many returning service members who have struggled to find work since returning from overseas. In fact, the unemployment rate among younger veterans is far higher than for their counterparts who didn't serve in the military.

And with a million troops, according to a White House estimate, expected to return home from Iraq and Afghanistan by 2016, veteran unemployment is a problem that is threatening to become a crisis — especially in an economy that is still failing to create work for the millions of Americans who are already jobless.

"A lot of younger soldiers have never held civilian employment," said retired Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Van Pelt of the New York National Guard. "They've never gone out and had to find a job."

According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate among veterans overall — 7.4 percent in November — is actually below the 8.2 percent rate of overall joblessness, a testament, in part, to veterans' ability to keep work once they have it.

But for veterans from ages 18 to 24, usually looking for a toehold in the labor market, the unemployment rate is a staggering 37.9 percent — more than double the rate for non-veterans in the age group, according to data compiled by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.
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