Military Families Speak Out NY Metro Chapter

1. Veterans are disconnected from the civilian work force, and their jobs because they are in the service.  Although most jobs today are acquired through the “grapevine” or “networking” or “personal contacts,” they are cut off from this nexus.  According to internet sources, from 43-80% of job seekers find jobs through networking family, friends and contacts.

2.  Industry does not accept military experience as adequate job experience-they ask that the veteran get “industrial, commercial or civilian” experience before being hired.  There should be a comparison between the duties of a soldier’s DOD in a specific area, e.g., driving, areas of information technology, clerical.

JOB DESCRIPTION: Duties and Responsibilities

Secondly, industry or prospective employers should be asked to provide training in specialized equipment, e.g., types of document software. Large firms create their own special software that their staff is trained in-house to use it, and very often in job descriptions, a phrase similar to “experience in the (specialized software or equipment, methods, etc.) used at this particular firm or institution,” which means they are looking for specific experience within the in house staff or exactly the same software, to save money.  One example would be a recent job ad looking for an IT administrator at a nursing home.  This nursing home wanted someone well versed with “Great Plains” software.  This software is not commonly used; an experienced IT person could learn it in a few months, or even weeks, especially if there was someone on site who had experience as well; but since the firm did not want to experience a ‘learning curve,’ they stipulated that the candidate must already know the software.

3.  Veterans traditionally have had to live with their families for 2-3 years until they find a job or become homeless soon after returning.  Due to the stress of transition or influence of even light post traumatic stress disorder, they may get into domestic disputes and get kicked out before they find a job or have funds for shelter.  Once homeless, veterans can begin a downward spiral and become involved with drugs, alcohol etc to self medicate, not counting not having an address to give a prospective employer.  There are shelters in certain cities, but not enough beds or staffing.

4.  Veterans need individual assistance in creating a viable resume that translates skills from the acquired in the military to civilian applications: “an infantryman once told me that he had been in the Army for 23 years (E-9/Command Sergeant Major), and felt he had no skills or direct value to offer corporate America.

     He said he operated tanks, weapons, and dug ditches.

    “However, after our discussion, we determined that this Command Sergeant Major directly supervised, trained, and evaluated 40 personnel, supporting over 2,000 troops in four countries, with an inventory list of 1,500 line items, and material assets valued at $65M (including large vehicles).

    “His functional areas of expertise included personnel management, logistics, and operations. As he moved up the ranks, to a level of senior management, he also gained considerable responsibility for strategic planning and tactical application.

    “This soldier accepted a management position with a major retailer as a logistics expert with oversight supervisory responsibility for several hundred employees, and multiple warehouses in a multi-state area (he doubled his salary, and banked his military retirement pay).

    In a different example, an Army Major / Bomb Disposal expert, decided to move into pharmaceutical sales (as a Regional Manager) when he retired.

    “So, we worked together to translate “Bomb Disposal expert” into “sales and marketing”. We identified his leadership skills, ability as a public speaker and briefer when “selling and marketing” new programs to convince management to revise and improve processes, very savvy negotiation abilities, and skill at writing and communicating effectively.

    “We also focused on his experience in leading large size programs and supervising dozens of personnel while managing multi-million dollar budgets. In the final resume, there is only one line referring to his extensive knowledge as a bomb disposal expert.

     In each of these examples, we translated not only individual military acronyms and terms, but also career experience and skill sets; we dug deep into each career history to identify those experiences and skills not directly related to the career field (perhaps you are designated as a recruiter for a year, an event planner, or trained in IT—you just never know), as well as those skill sets directly related to the career field.” By Diane Hudson for job-hunt.org

5.  The MOS or job title of a soldier is often not updated to reflect his or her actual experience and responsibilities.  For example, a soldier whose MOS is IT work could have a classification of 31R at the beginning and end of his tour of duty.  This 31R does not reflect that the soldier may have acquired years of experience in modern, up to date equipment, but he or she was not given credit for this experience by the military.  There is a dead end “hopeless” feeling expressed by many soldiers and veterans in terms of getting credit for soldiers’ experience in the military—they feel they cannot get out because they do not get credit for all their responsibilities and duties, and the DODshould take responsibility for putting in place more truthful accurate job descriptions to aid troops who want to make the transition from military to civilian life.  On Saturday May 7 a veteran said that he fixed radar equipment for field artillery, and did not think he could get a job in civilian life because in civilian life trucks do not use radar equipment.  He said veterans could mostly only either a) stay in the military, b) get a job with a military contractor. This results in many divorces, separations, homelessness, or poor morale among those troops who feel they are trapped in dead end jobs with no hope of upward mobility.

6.  The following chart tracks the status of over 30 veterans and their employment status:

Of 33 soldiers, 6 are dead, 1 from suicide;

5 were completely disabled, one from Multiple disorders, 3 from PTSD, 1 from TBI

1 was a Conscientious Objector who has severe PTSD who got a dishonorable discharge

2 were never deployed; 3 are female; 1 is a mother

11 are working; of those 11, 4 are lifers and officers; 3 have found jobs with civilian companies; 2 work for government; 1 found a job and was redeployed; 4 are seeking employment

9 are full time students; 2 part time students-will be seeking jobs in 6 months-3 years

7.  Before discharge, at least three months, every soldier should have a questionnaire: Do you have a job, do you have a place to stay, do you foresee any challenges making the transition to civilian life?  Also, a test for post traumatic stress disorder should be mandatory, not voluntary, because there is a high incidence of denial, and then the family and community have to deal with a situation they are not prepared for.  This questionnaire should be made up by a committee of veterans, a representative of the VA, and medical/psychological experts and a representative from a civilian company that are pro veteran.

8.  In their job quest, Veterans who do not utilize the GI Bill need legislation that identifies them as a discriminated minority with legislation to enforce, protect and special help, and standards that can measure progress.  If you cannot measure results, you have no idea of whether progress is being made. This is a well known fact in the business community.  In light of this, the licensing for peddling in New York City has been one shining example of success and win-win solutions; the veteran community needs a lot of help from the New York City Council Veteran Committee because they are currently being threatened with losing or diminishing the number of licenses available for new entrepreneurs.

9.  In Conclusion, Veterans and their families sacrifice and enlist due to love of country, and then suffer from homelessness, unemployment, losing their houses, losing ties to their communities and friends, as well as physical and mental health ailments.  Legislation in the following areas would help the veterans of recent wars: 1) designation as a discriminated minority with laws to deter violation, such as requesting transitional training programs, which could be as simple as one-on-one coaching; 2) informational brochures sent to leading employers and small businesses about veterans, and encouraging cooperation in hiring practices; 3) questionnaire to all soldiers before leaving the military to assess if they have a job waiting; 4) period of enforcement regarding job retention for National Guard and reservists; 5) enforcement of free resume creation at Department of Labor; 6) requiring DOD to update MOS of all soldiers if their list of duties is upgraded so that they can get credit for it in job seeking; 7) expanding number of peddling licenses for New York City veterans, and monitoring same; 8) bill requiring all employers to accept veterans’ experience as equal to that of experience in industry or commerce.  Witness requests establishment of a civilian subcommittee of Veterans Committee to work on employment issues and creation of a “vet-friendly” atmosphere in NYC.

Respectfully submitted, Military Families Speak Out

MILITARY FAMILIES –  Military families have suffered enormously during their loved one’s deployment and NYC needs to offer a helping hand to these invisible citizens in need.

As we can see from the Vietnam war, where recently 200,000 veterans applied for benefits from disabilities due to Agent orange and other war-related injuries and the Gulf War, where out of 696,000 soldiers, 325,000 veterans are now permanently disabled, after effects of the wars, both social and financial last for generations.  The financial costs amount to trillions of dollars.  As to human costs, our country now loses more soldiers and vets to suicide than those KIA.  What is the effect of this on the morale of our armed forces and military families?  We should as Secretary Gates recommended last week, try to avoid involvement in such wars in the future.  Holliday442-4171

Now faced with these after effects, we need to create a Safety Net and Friendly Environment for returning veterans and military families who have given and risked all.  By fine tuning protocols, and being guided by principles of risk management for New York City agencies in partnership with the Veterans Administration, we can ensure that NYC does its part in standing up for veterans.

Federal Funds Could Help Close NY’s Budget Crisis:  The new GI Bill offers wonderful benefits.  10,000 veterans were expected to return to New York.  If veterans took advantage of the GI Bill, they could bring over 1.3 billion in federal funds to NYS.  However, NY is in competition with other states, who capture students before they return.  NYC should be recruiting for CUNY earlier, in readiness programs, exit interviews, and online.  E.g., two recent veterans wanted to enroll in Baruch or Manhattan Community, however they had a problem with late registration so they went to Mercy.  In addition they were dealing with finding housing. In order to double or triple the number of student veterans (now 2900) we suggest the City fine tune their protocols of recruitment and retention to support the special needs of the veteran population and assign staff for this purpose.

I.  ENSURE VETERAN UTILIZATION OF NY SOCIAL SERVICES

1.   Many veterans are parents.  Their kids usually go to public school and these families should be able to fully utilize the social service system of NYC, however they often are left out of it.  For example, a veteran who is on the GI Bill cannot get free lunch for their kids.  There should be an exception made for veterans receiving temporary assistance from the federal government while they go to school.  Income levels for family support services need to be calculated without factoring in temporary things such as GI bill. In terms of parking tickets, PTSD should be added to the list of medical exceptions as recent veterans often forget to pay their tickets and dealing with PTSD is not an acceptable medical excuse like a recent accident would be, and this creates a financial crisis because they can’t afford to pay the fines.

II. CREATE A SAFETY NET

2.  Veterans return to their old neighborhoods, and many of them live with their in-laws or parents for 2-3 years of transition to civilian life.  This is complicated by the frequency of PTSD, health problems and lack of jobs.  Military families need counseling and crisis intervention, perhaps through the hospital system, VA or a volunteers’ network.

A) Some veterans come home and are depressed and commit suicide, even if their parents are trained professional psychologists, e.g. the Luceys.

B) A young Captain in upper New York State kept his mother and sister up all night for most of the first year of his return because of his hyper-vigilance.  They were afraid he would kill himself.  Now he is helping to treat other vets.

C) A mother whose son had PTSD said he called her long distance and said, “I have a gun and I’m going to stick it in my mouth and blow my head off.”  She managed to talk him out of it, however, this family could obviously have used some help in this crisis.  The suicide rate is higher than the KIA rate on the front lines.  Imagine being a military family whose breadwinner or child survives the war only to kill themselves.  We must try to prevent suicides by providing fast crisis intervention to families who are not trained as psychologists or part of a Vets for Vets network.  Massachusetts has two veterans trained in crisis intervention in every county of the state who respond 24/7 to emergency calls.  Suicide has a domino effect; veteran friends are incapacitated mentally by grief.

3.  New York City would benefit from a Veterans Court similar to others in upstate New York in Buffalo, or in Texas.   We need to give veterans a second chance in certain cases.  Incarcerating veterans is an expensive solution as opposed to offering an alternative form of compliance that generally offers a much higher success rate.

4.  New York City needs an advisory committee devoted to veterans’ needs and to establishing a circle of employers who commit to employing veterans.  The fact that vets comprise 33% of homeless and double the unemployment rate is because there is a crack that vets fall through when they come home.  They are at a disadvantage because they have been out of their nexus and have not had the opportunity to search for work.  In cases where military families (e.g. parents) cannot afford to support their veteran relatives, housing should be built (using federal grants) such as the one that was demolished in NYC.

5.  U.S.  soldiers and veterans are being prescribed multiple medications, painkillers, sleeping pills, antidepressants and sedatives without any clinical trials to test for toxic interaction, which any pharmacist can tell you is lethal.  This may be responsible for the high veteran suicide rate. The late Senior Airman Anthony Mena (23 years old) returned home from Baghdad only to be killed by a toxic cocktail of prescription medications.  A toxicologist found eight prescription medications in his blood (NY Times).  We should insist that the NY VA and the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation institute protocols to prevent these pharmaceutically-based tragedies which incidentally could develop into a class action suit.

6.  Create a questionnaire circulated among prospective and actual veteran students with an addendum form for their families.  This questionnaire or series of same, could also be circulated at the USOs, Readiness Groups of armed forces, and at forts and could address social service (e.g. housing and child care) problems, psychological and medical needs, and access to education.

7.  Better integration into city services for family support. ALSO income levels for family support services (low cost school lunch, other assistance, etc) needs to be calculated without temporary things such as GI bill and such.

75 vigils for peace, 50 in Brooklyn, 25 on upper west side; tabling at Brooklyn for Peace Fair, with attached leaflets**; visiting Congressmen Rangel, Nadler, Senators Gillebrand and Schumer; lobbying with AFSCE in DC; seminar in PTSD and domestic violence and violence against women in military at St. Mary’s Church (see below); participation in seminar on war at Unitarian Church on east side, Move the Money national mfso campaign;

When a soldier returns home either on leave or as a veteran, he or she is changing

from a violent environment to a civilian peaceful, one.  The state of alertness needed in a

war environment where someone is shooting at you or potentially trying to take your life is

much more than in normal domestic conditions.  Therefore, even though the soldier may love

his/her family, it takes time to readjust to reality.  At present, counseling is not mandatory for

PTSD or readjustment to family life.  Consequently, many families are having unnecessary confrontation or violent scenes which can reoccur on a chronic basis.  What seems like a personal attack may be a defensive over-reaction by a veteran or soldier with PTSD, feeling depression, fear, despair, hopelessness, etc.  Sometimes, the veteran may be experiencing a flashback to a trauma or life threatening situation, such as a bomb attack or IED explosion and another person may be viewed as a threat.  Sometimes, hyper alertness may result in a veteran staying up for nights in a row.  Warfare may result in personality changes.

One third of all female soldiers experience rape or sexual molestation or harassment.  So  returning female veterans need special attention.  They may withdraw and be overly emotional or suicidal and unable to work.  Any veteran may engage in risk taking behavior such as getting drunk, self medicating with  drugs or getting overly angry/ hostile, or hitting the ground on hearing loud sounds.  To intervene in these crises, one must be trained and at best, have similar experiences so that the counselor can really understand the situation. Thus, the Veterans Administration is training veterans to treat other veterans in readjustment.

The first three months after a soldier goes home, the Department of Defense is responsible for him or her.  After that it becomes the job of the Veterans Administration.  However, the VA has

A tiny percentage of the budget the DOD does.  Due to the fact that over two million soldiers passed through Iraq and Afghanistan, it is estimated 300,000 soldiers have gotten PTSD, 300,000 Traumatic Brain Injuries, over 30,000 return mutilated, and an unknown number have depleted

Uranium poisoning.  In the Gulf War in 1993 only a couple hundred deaths were reported on the American side, however, now out of 696,000 soldiers deployed, over 325,000 are completely disabled.  This year 200,000 Vietnam veterans applied for disability benefits.  You can see that

This matter of veteran care is long lasting and quite expensive for taxpayers, to say nothing of the divorces, and incidence of domestic violence.  If you need help with domestic violence involving a veteran, you need professional help.  You can call MFSO, IVAW, the VA or SWAN, if you are a female veteran with sexual abuse issues.