WASHINGTON – Victor Ruiz has been looking for work since January.
An
Air Force pension helps, but it’s not enough to keep his family afloat.
His house is in foreclosure, and he and his two teenage children are
leaving Fircrest to live with his parents in Chicago.
Ruiz, 39, is
a retired Air Force major who has an MBA, oversaw an $80 million
computer network that helped track incoming missiles and nuclear
detonations, and at various times supervised more than 100 people.
“I
am the most educated of my three siblings, but I am the one moving back
home,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz’s story isn’t uncommon. Many veterans, especially younger and
injured ones, are struggling to find civilian jobs in a troubled
economy.
The unemployment rate for veterans who left the military
during the past three years is 18 percent, nearly twice the national
average. The average for all veterans is about 11.6 percent. Even those
numbers, however, may not reflect the situation as the economy worsened.
Six
months ago, members of the 81st Brigade Combat Team of the Washington
National Guard were patrolling in such places as Mosul, Balad and Ramadi
in Iraq. Now, after returning home in August, roughly 40 percent of the
2,400 Guardsmen from Washington state are still looking for work.
Meantime,
the Pentagon during the third quarter reimbursed the Labor Department
nearly $186 million for veterans’ unemployment benefits, an increase of
more than 70 percent from a year ago.
“It’s just heartbreaking,”
said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. “They volunteer, serve our country
honorably and come back and can’t find a job.”
Murray, a senior
member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, is working on
legislation that would provide additional employment training and
support for unemployed veterans and establish a program to help veterans
start their own businesses.
Murray’s bill also would provide
grants to states that establish Veterans Conservation Corps to employ
veterans to restore natural habitat, maintain local forests and parks
and improve storm-water facilities. Murray hopes to introduce her bill
in the coming weeks.
“I believe how we treat our veterans when
they come home is an indication of the character of our nation,” Murray
said.
For his part, Ruiz, who joined the Air Force right out of
high school and worked his way up from the enlisted ranks to major, said
he’s surprised he hasn’t found work. It’s been a difficult time for him
and his family, he said.
“The military service allowed me to get
an education, it let me lead a good life,” he said. “But civilian life
is very different. It’s not the same.”
Owen McCurty Jr. knows all
about Ruiz.
McCurty works for the Washington state Department of
Employment Security and is attached to the Airman & Family Readiness
Center at McChord Air Force Base outside Tacoma. It’s one in a string
of public and private programs designed to help veterans find jobs.
It’s
not easy, McCurty said, adding that it’s even more difficult for
veterans who were injured or suffer from post traumatic stress disorder
and traumatic brain injury.
“I’ve had veterans cry in front of
me,” McCurty said. “These are proud people. They think they can do it on
their own. But it’s a tough economy.”
Every year, 220,000 service
members exit the military. About 10 percent of them are retirees and
about 10 percent of them are officers. An additional 80,000 to 90,000
National Guard members or Reservists leave the military.
Of every
1,000 troops deployed, 23 percent are combat troops who knock down doors
and ride shotgun for convoys. The other 77 percent are support troops,
many of them with computer and information technology skills.
“Our
veterans should be remembered, honored and appreciated, not just on
Veterans Day, but every day,” Raymond Jefferson, assistant labor
secretary for veterans employment and training, told a congressional
committee earlier this month.
Jefferson, a West Point graduate,
served in the infantry, the Rangers and Special Forces. During a
training accident involving a live grenade, Jefferson lost all five
fingers on his left hand.
Jefferson said some of the federal
government’s programs to assist veterans haven’t been updated in years.
An external review of the employment training portion of the Transition
Assistance Program, one of the main programs to assist veterans, is
underway.
“Specifically, we want the content to become more
economically relevant, immediately applicable and engaging for
participants,” Jefferson said.
– The News Tribune
English 
Spanish