Money? Not really. Well, ok, I can make double what I do now, but its not primary motivator. Ok, I admit it, its almost primary.

Like today, I had 1-on-1 appointments with veterans to show them how to search for jobs, to help them apply for jobs, to advocate with employers on their behalf ("Hey, I met you at the BRG meeting last month, how's business?.... good...... etc...... by the way, I'm sending Joe over to apply for the foreman job, he has tons of experience, and is a real people person, and he's a veteran so you know he will be a good employee....." You know how it goes, job development is job development.

But my veterans today just caused my clinical depression to fire on all cylinders. Both were female. Both of marginally homeless. One has a 7 month old baby, and neither has two quarters to rub together. I'm like crying inside the whole time. So I find them both a dozen jobs to apply for, each, and make some calls, And even try to get one hired in the office as a contractual (term employment, but decent money). And once a week, I will make contact, and provide more leads, until they get jobs.

But I can't fix the other problems. The one is a combat veteran, she killed insurgents in Afghanistan. She got bounced out of a truck moving at a high rate of speed because it had been fired upon, and spent 20 minutes beside the road in a ditch until they realized she was gone, and came back. Just dumb luck the insurgents didn't get her. But she got a traumatic brain injury out of it, and two more during the tour, and it hospitalized her with PTSD bad enough it included clinical psychosis and high risk of suicide.

And this is just a alarmingly high trend these days, young women coming back from Iraq and Afhanistan, after having seen and heard, and done, and felt stuff that would crack most men like eggs, and they are walking basketcases. You look at them and they look fine. When lucid they seem almost ok, but if you listen, you hear the pain and the confusion and the fear they aren't worth anything.

And I just don't want to hurt like I do right now, over top the medication, and maybe I'm not the right person to do this job. Because just thinking about it brings me to tears.

So yes, money is the prime motivator, I need a higher paying job.

I can feel your pain as theirs.I seem to ride butI'm disabled.And my girlfriend is my caretaker.Shse takes care of people with sever brain injuries.I cry when I see I can ride while others are in a wheelchair.One Wrong move I'm in that chair.Lifes susks.
Craig`

There's a reason people have feelings....it's good to feel compassion.And tears.And all.Without it,there'd be little to live for.Just to please oneself?That gets old quick.And empty.You're both doing great.I think anyway.Sounds like an excellent job Priv...painful as it can be at times...there's a reason YOU'RE there instead of someone else....For YOU....it's YOUR gift.

"I cry when I see I can ride while others are in a wheelchair"...it's YOUR gift as well...something to be thankful for...as you are.That spills over on to others that don't feel what you do.It all matters.All of it.Everyone has their particular gifts to offer.You two are sounding most excellent today!Embrace your feelings...the good ones....that's what makes you YOU...and needed.Yes...you ARE needed....both of you...to make this world a better place for someone,somewhere.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 9/12/2012 @ 1:02 PM *

You do good work though, man. Hopefully the perspective of how much you help people that really need and really deserve it will help to ride you through. As a veteran myself, with a couple friends that have disabilities, this stuff is pretty close to home for me.

Not to get all political, but I'm really surprised you're supporting the Romney/Ryan ticket because of this. They really do intend to cut billions of dollars from the budget from the exact program that you work for. Money that goes to organizations like yours that help people like those 2 female veterans you're trying to help.

Just like for first responders - in 2010 Obama finally got a bill passed to fund health care for 9/11 first responders. Most Republicans in the house, including Paul Ryan, voted against that bill. How the hell do you vote against health care for first responders?! Then he had the BALLS to go on tv yesterday talking about how much he supports them.

Actions speak louder than words. And Republicans SAYING they support the troops, but then cutting funding for the care they need after their service, or voting against health benefits for first responders, tells me everything I need to know about them, imo.

I thought they voted it down because the first responders were already covered by the World Trade Center Health Program?

privateer; I can see why you're thinking of quitting. It depresses me more just reading about it. You have to weigh the benefits against the negatives. Stress and depression are life shortening health hazards, and you need to take them seriously. You won't be any help to anyone if you are burned out. You have a lot to deal with, and sometimes you have to put yourself first. You are not the only person on this earth that can help these people. Someone will step up if you cannot. It's not like you haven't given already.

@Caroobs - I'm not going to bring politics into this topic.

@alg8er = I'm training a new guy and in a month or so he will start doing a lot of the 1-on-1 case management and I'll go back out into the community and to businesses to develop job oppportunities for veterans.

But just yesterday afternoon, VA Medical Center, Salem Virginia, called me about a job there, and if they make an offer, I'm probably going to take it.

@Caroobs - trying not to be political, but we have to talk about what is going to happen to Title 38 which is the federal law which established, and pays for, veterans employment and traing. Because when there was a majority in Congress "friendly" to the President, and from 2008-2010 they pushed the debt from $10T to $16T, we are in the situation where this is no longer a majority in Congress and so we are getting sequestration which is deep cuts across the board, and even without it, the current administration has cut the military by $1T in the course of just one year. So I don't know for sure what will happen if the Presidency and Congress become Republican, but it won't be any worse than what is already taking place. And they are saying things like Ronald Reagan said, so if they walk the talk, to quote Mr. Reagan, I know exactly what will happen, and cutting Veterans Employment and Training funds won't be part of it. And none of this is political, just facts, because there are also Democratic Presidents who have signed bills to create Veterans Employment and Training programs, just not this one, no matter what he says.

And this is just a alarmingly high trend these days, young women coming back from Iraq and Afhanistan, after having seen and heard, and done, and felt stuff that would crack most men like eggs, and they are walking basketcases.

most women do not belong in combat. not all men do either but very few women. Sorry. GF is ex army and would kill me for saying it but she is a prime example why I would rather have less support from fellow soldiers in combat than to have a loose canon rolling back and forth. This from a guy with non military background but still, just saying.

True, Rook, but get used to it. Women will play more and more active roles in military operations as we go forward. The glass ceiling is all but busted. Word is we will have a female Ranger School graduate soon, if not already.

Many women successfully roll with SWAT units, and on gang squads. They can't bench press as much, but they bring skills that men simply don't have or can't master.

And still, I hate the idea of a woman in combat. And EVERY young female soldier I've met who served in Iraq or Afghanistan has come back with mental and emotional problems. Its no wonder the rate of homeless female vets is going up far faster than of male veterans.

I applaud you for what you do, but at the end of the day you have to take care of you. As a Vet myself, nice to hear of someone actually giving a shit. Hat's off to you!!! Sorry your caring is affecting you, but at the same time glad you haven't become used to it. I think the later would be much worse.

A lot of people don't realize.... you can't go to the grocery store or the library without passing at least one veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces who bled so the rest of us can continue to live our lives in relative freedom.

If only we could do as good a job on the homefront creating jobs for these vets, and all people who need jobs, as our veterans did when called to take up arms.

I am sorry to hear, but it is going to get worse before it gets any better. Instead of quitting, maybe there are other areas in the military where you can help people before you burned out.

I never understood why women wanted to fight in the front lines. Women in the military have to not only fight the enemy but also fight against their own men. Sexual assault has become so widespread that finally people are speaking out.

Kofla

a battle plan to stop sexual assaults

the invisible war

air force relieves commander sex scandal

victims military sex attacks fighting back

NINJA ZX-14 MotoVlog

A lot of people don't realize.... you can't go to the grocery store or the library without passing at least one veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces who bled so the rest of us can continue to live our lives in relative freedom.

If only we could do as good a job on the homefront creating jobs for these vets, and all people who need jobs, as our veterans did when called to take up arms.

I agree, but I can also tell you medical and social programs for veterans are getting cut or eliminated by our government. There are thousands of vets here in Philly living on the streets because funding for housing and mental health programs have been almost eliminated. When the current Pennsylvania governor was elected the clinic where I work lost federal funding for our homeless program. Two social workers and a doctor laid off, plus over 1,000 patients we served (those who lived in three local shelters) lost their medical and housing services.

Kofla

NINJA ZX-14 MotoVlog

* Last updated by: KoflaOlivieri on 9/15/2012 @ 5:25 AM *

Kofla, this is because cities and states are going broke, and no longer getting federal funds they used to get, because the current federal government has not delivered a budget since 2008. Its all been continuing resolutions, just bare bones enough to keep federal government and military operating.

So many social services administered by local and state government are feeling the pinch very bad.

Its not that they are going to be cut, they HAVE been cut already due to failed economic policies of the federal government.

Now, any vet who is homeless can call the National Veterans Hotline, and a social worker from the nearest VA Medical Center will come pick them up.

But even that is suffering under the crushing debt accrued and the spector of sequestration which, because there is no budget, will cut across the board, ALL federal agencies.

Here in Hagerstown MD we have social services unlike any in the country. Needy people from all over the region (including where you live) are moving to Hagerstown to get social services. The Community Action Councel, Washington County Housing Authority, and the Washington County Homeless Coalition all have in the past provided near-permanent living arrangedment for destitute families and the homeless in general. Our DSS (Division of Social Services, State agency) is very busy giving out food stamps and cash assistance.

But here, so many people have come in from out of county and out of State (and stayed long enough to become a legal MD resident) that these services are just overwhelmed, and are becoming significantly less effective.

Many of the federal funds these agencies are used to having, in the past, were put in place as the result of federal budgets submitted by Presidents Clinton and the first President Bush.

The sitting President has NEVER offered a budget for consideration to Congress, except one early on which was a complete joke, a grade schooler could have created a better budget proposal. And he owned Congress for 2 years, and could pass anything he wanted to, and he did. And we got $6T more national debt as a result.

So this is why you are seeing what you are seeing. Unless we get a Congress and a President who is willing to cut the size of federal government enough to make a difference, and remove enough regulations to allow small- and midsize-businesses to get going again (and hence, hire people), its just going to get worse and worse.

If we keep doing what we have been doing the last 4 years, we will get what Clinton called, at the DNC in a speech, a Modern Economy. Like Greece. Where nobody gets anything except for food stamps and thats about it. With 30%+ unemployment.

It's just a sign of the times that everyone wants someone else cut off of some program as long as it's not them personally. It's ironic that some of the most vehement cutters are people who live off taxpayer dollars. Ask any "fiscal hawk" politician if he or she is willing to take a pay cut and forgo their benefits.

The costs of war are much higher than just the dollars wasted and the lives lost and forever altered. I would hope the politicians think long and hard before committing American troops and dollars to the next one. I don't think they gave the last two much consideration regarding the long-term effects.

We are inextricably a part of the global economy, like it or not, and the only way the rest of the world will ever be lifted out of poverty is for the rest of us to make some sacrifice vis-a-vis a reduction in our own lives and standard of living. The very rich who profit from the wars without doing any actual fighting have already decided they are not going to take a cut in pay, so guess who ends up with the short stick?

Vets returning from service are faced with an economy that has pressed working folks for 40+ years to produce more and take less in return so those at the top and bottom can continue to benefit. Many must think, "What the hell was I fighting for if I can't even get a decent job when I return to civilian life?" Even those without physical and/or mental wounds are up against the same thing that was happening when they left, even before most of them were born. I'm all for helping them and even giving them some priority, but priority to what? There's just not that much left for anyone, because the pie is finite, and the cooks are getting a smaller and smaller slice to fight over because those at the top and bottom who are eating also while not producing anything seem to always need more and more.

And I hate to be that cynical, but the system of a voluntary military is well sustained by a piss-poor economy. For young people coming out of high school (and even college) the option of joining up, even in times of war, looks better than the bleak job picture. The problem is, things are no better when they get out than when they went in.

* Last updated by: Danno on 9/15/2012 @ 12:16 PM *

And since were not getting political, we need to look further back than 2008, when the Tea Party took over the Republican Party and began to worship at the altar of Grover Nordquist and Rush Limbaugh. Reagan raised taxes, GHW Bush raised taxes, (and paid dearly for saying he wouldn't before he did) and Bill Clinton raised taxes. Clinton was the only one who presented a balanced budget, and as soon as he was out of office, W proceeded to blow it while cutting taxes, starting two wars and giving retirees an unfunded prescription drug benefit. So to think all our problems could somehow be alleviated by returning to 2008 and starting over with more of the same is pretty myopic. Until the real Republicans take back their party from these snot-nosed punks who now run Congress, there will be NO BUDGET DEAL, because there CAN'T be without a balanced approach of cuts and raised taxes on those who can well afford it. As long as we're quoting Clinton's convention speech, it's a simple matter of "arithmetic"

I agree. Its a mess.

You know and I know, not being political, if we keep doing what we been doing the last 4 years, its just going to be a much bigger mess.

I don't know what the answer is. I just try to help 1 veteran at a time. The economy and the politicians are not making it any easier.

School...mobility...drive...personal responsibility. In my 10 years of active service I've been enrolled in college/grad school/prof cert programs for 9 of them, and am currently finishing up my Lean SixSigma Black Belt training. Too many members of the military (mainly enlisted, because officers already have degrees) put off college or don't take advantage of TA/GI Bill until they are walking out the door...too late. I know so many veterans that are approaching 20yrs and cramming in the last classes for their bachelors. Granted, there are a lot of college grads unemployed, but the stats are much lower for those with an education. I was lucky, but everyone should realize how important setting yourself up for the outside is...unless you're disabled, the military has no obligation to take care of you once you end your service. By having the willingness to use federal money to go back to school and move to a job location, a veteran has a much better chance of success on the outside. I count my blessings every day that I took advantage of these opportunities and try to educate others of the need to pursue these opportunities. Mental health...eh, that's another story.

* Last updated by: runr2940 on 9/27/2012 @ 12:26 AM *