August 5th, the White House released its factsheet titled “President Obama’s Commitment to Employing America’s Veterans.” On the surface, President Obama should be commended for his continuous support to our veterans. However, his track record in threatening service members pay throughout this recent economic crisis will not be forgotten–even with this new initiative.
The President has gone on record time and again in recent months espousing rhetoric threatening numerous demographics possibilities of economic turmoil. His target audience included persons on Medicare/Medicaid, social security, and even service members with pay freezes. During times of continued deployment, even Admiral Mike Mullen failed in comforting the troops concerned with such dilemmas.
Today, with a debt crisis temporarily adverted, the President appears to regain his focus on showing support for the troops. This up and down rollercoaster ride causing unnecessary mental stress on the troops continues yet today the roller coaster is moving upward for the one million unemployed military service members. Will his commitment be capable of assisting the additional one million service members expected to leave the armed forces in the next five years?
In the past, the United States government has made incredible initiatives come to fruition for our veterans. One specific program of appraise is the Troops to Teachers Program. While the program placed veterans into employment positions as teachers, the program was specifically designed to place these veterans into low income/high crime rate school districts–some could construe these locations as domestic war zones. They averaged $15-30k per year salaries.
Some could argue that our government’s past support for our veterans has been marginal at best. In fact, many could argue that non-government organizations have done much more for our vets than our own Department of Veteran Affairs. Our service members make little pay while they serve. They make ends-meat upon retirement depending on their rank. And many need mental and physical assistance due to prolonged disabilities sustained while fighting our enemies–services the VA often must outsource due to their incompetence.
There is hope today for our veterans! President Obama is committed in resolving our needs. He has stated that he seeks to “improve the way we prepare, train, and educate service members for life after the military.” Considering cuts are proposed in the Defense Department budget and he has continued to threaten service members lifestyles, the breadth of this combat disabled veteran will not be held.
Kerry Patton is the Co-Founder of the National Security Leadership Foundation, a non-profit organization pending 501c (3) status. He has worked in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, focusing on intelligence and security interviewing current and former terrorists, including members of the Taliban. He is the author of “Sociocultural Intelligence: The New Discipline of Intelligence Studies” and the children’s book “American Patriotism.” You can follow him on Facebook.
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