'Veterans Gardening Day', Cedar Rapids, March 28

An information-filled "Veterans Gardening Day" will be conducted 9 a.m to 4 p.m., March 28 at the Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The FREE event will include speakers, hands-on classes, a spaghetti lunch and seed packets.

The address of the building is: Veterans Memorial Building, 50 2nd Avenue Bridge, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401. The building is located on May's Island, in the middle of the Cedar River.

Army Brig. Gen. Craig Bargfrede, who commanded the Iowa National Guard's 734th Agri-business Development Team (A.D.T.) when it deployed to Eastern Afghanistan's Kunar Province in 2010-2011, will provide keynote remarks.

Other presentations will include experts and insights into fruit tree cultivation, accessible gardening, and sustainable agriculture.

Media attention is increasing noting the potential roles of veterans in feeding Iowa families through small- and large-scale agriculture. For example, check out this recent story titled "From War To Plow: Why USDA Wants Veterans To Take Up Farming", and efforts such as the Farmer Veteran Coalition.

Tickets for the Veterans Gardening Day lunch are available at EventBritehere.

A Facebook event page is available here.

After a $20 million renovation in 2014, the reopened Veterans Memorial Building is now home to the Iowa Veterans' Welcome Center, Midwest Military Outreach, and other veterans-service organizations, and contains office, exhibit, meeting, and performance spaces.

OIF Veterans to Trek from Milwaukee to Los Angeles

Starting Aug. 30, 2013, two Iraq War veterans will walk from Milwaukee, Wis. to Los Angeles–a distance of 2,700 miles–in order to raise funds and awareness for veterans diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) and others. Other challenges faced by U.S. military veterans and their families include homelessness, unemployment, and suicide.

Funds raised will benefit Dryhootch of America, a Milwaukee-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization that promotes alcohol-free coffee-shop social centers, and peer counseling programs for U.S. military veterans. The trekking veterans have set their target high: $100,000.

Anthony Anderson was a member of the Wisconsin National Guard from 2002-2008. He deployed to Iraq in 2004 with the Louisiana National Guard's 256th Brigade, and in again in 2007 with Wisconsin's 105th Cavalry Regiment.

Tom Voss served in the active-duty Army from 2003-2006. He deployed to Iraq in 2004 with 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment (3-21 Inf.), an element of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division  "Tropic Lightning" Division (1-25 Inf.).

To cover costs, the two walkers are seeking to raise a start-up amount of $5,000 via crowd-funding website Indiegogo here. A video describing their "Veterans Trek" project is here.

Anderson and Voss invite other veterans and supporters to walk with them through towns along the way. In Iowa, the walking route will go through the towns of Dubuque, Farley, Dyersville, Earlville, Manchester, Winthrop, Independence, Jesup, Waterloo, Marshalltown, Des Moines, Adel, Stuart, Anita, Atlantic, Hancock, and Council Bluffs.

Visit the Veterans Trek website here and Facebook page here.

For more information on Dryhootch of America, visit the organization's website or Facebook page.

It's a Small War, After All

The following piece of goofiness is inspired by a today's news that the Walt Disney Co. is looking to hire 1,000 military veterans. Apparently, the Mouse needs a few, good Combat Imagineers to update its theme park rides with a Global War on Terror flavor.

Here are some of the coming attractions we hope to see. Click-through to read about the original rides:

• Mr. Toad's Wild MRAP Ride

• The Three Cups of Mad Tea Party

• The Hall of Commanders-in-Chief

• NORAD Space Mountain

• EPCOT-TOC: The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow's Tactical Operations Center

• The Swiss Family Combat Outpost

• Big Hindu Mountain logistics supply train

• Casey Junior's Jingle Trucks

• "If You Had Wings," sponsored by Lockheed Martin, manufacturers of the F-35

• The Country Bear Loya Jirga Jamboree

• Mickey's Soundsational Schock-and-Awe Parade

• 20,000 Leagues Under the AirSea Battle

• Mike Fink's littoral combat ships

• Tomorrowland Drones

• The Carousel of Doctrine

• It's a Small War

Red Bull Soldiers Testify on Vets and Jobs

A U.S. House subcommittee investigating civilian employment issues facing veterans and military reservists conducted a field hearing in Waterloo, Iowa, Monday, Oct. 17. The event was one of two such hearings. A second is slated for Wednesday, Oct. 19, in Northeastern Indiana.

In addition to those representing governmental agencies and Iowa employers, three members of the Iowa Army National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (2-34th BCT) offered their insights on helping citizen-soldiers find employment. In July 2010, an estimated 25 percent of that unit's roughly 3,000 members reported they would be unemployed upon their return. Other states' National Guard units have similarly experienced above-average unemployment rates.

The U.S. National Guard's 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division has historical roots in the American Midwest, originally consisting of citizen-soldiers from Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota. That tradition continues with multiple "Red Bull" units located in Iowa and Minnesota. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, is the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee.

Minnesota's 1st Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry Division (1-34th BCT) is currently deployed to Kuwait and Iraq. Rep. Timothy J. Walz, D-Minn., is also on the subcommittee.

Col. Benjamin Corell, commander of the Iowa's 2-34th BCT, brought the big-gun, big-picture perspective:

This last decade has been a long, tough fight for our military forces. I, like others have personally answered the call to duty time and time again. I have witnessed our hard-earned success in both Iraq and in Afghanistan. I have seen the sacrifice required by our men and women in uniform and by our families. Reserve and National Guard employers have quietly sacrificed at great costs with little thanks and no financial incentives to hire and retain our veterans. [...]

The aggregate unemployment rate for our veterans is habitually higher than the national average rate of unemployment. I need your help to correct this. All of the job fairs and resume writing workshops in the world will only get my fellow veterans so far. I believe that we need to review and update the 1994 Cold War-focused Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994. Concurrently we must develop and implement legislation that will provide real incentives to the business sector and for those veterans that own small business or private professional practices. Once that is completed, we need to market it to employers and ensure that it is enforced.

Staff Sgt. Nathaniel Rose of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, a senior at the University of Iowa, noted the difficulties of balancing life as both a student and a citizen-soldier:

The [G.I. Bill benefit I receive] is actually enough, when coupled with my drill pay every month, that I do not have to work. I am able to concentrate completely on my studies, which any senior will tell you, is a hard thing to do.

I, however, do not have all the obligations that a number of soldiers I know have. I have no wife, no children, no car payments and so on. Many National Guard soldiers cannot go to school full time and take care of their family with tuition assistance and GI Bill alone, especially if they have not been deployed and receive a smaller pro-rated amount. This forces them to work while attending school. There is nothing wrong with working while going to school but for some soldiers I know personally they have had to stop going because they needed to move to full time at work, their grades were slipping or they weren’t spending as much time with their family as they wanted to.

Capt. Aaron Robinson of Urbandale, Iowa, discussed the difficulties he and other citizen-soldiers face in transitioning to civilian employment:

For example, an enlisted soldier friend of mine was the database manager for our unit’s personnel records pertaining to security clearances. (That’s 500 records—the size of a good-sized company.) However, now that he’s back at home, civilian employers don’t seem to recognize his abilities to learn new computer systems, and to manage highly sensitive data on a daily basis. To add insult to injury, he can’t even find work in his old civilian occupation–he’s a welder.

I’ve faced similar challenges to that of my friend, trying to figure out how to translate military language into civilian Human Resources-speak. After some resume coaching, I found my work in intelligence most closely applies to business analysis and project management. However, unlike my purely civilian counterparts, I’m not necessarily versed in the latest business acronyms and buzz-phrases, which decreases the likelihood of getting through H.R. filters. Also, while I am proficient in military computer software and hardware, I am not specifically trained in systems most-familiar to potential civilian employers.

Employers, politicians, and even the media talk up certain ideas about veterans: that we’re hard-working and motivated, that we’re mission- and people-focused, and that we handle pressure extremely well. Beyond this, however, and the occasional job-fair and “welcome home” PowerPoint show, veterans don’t seem to get a lot of practical help in getting hired.

For Des Moines (Iowa) Register coverage of Monday's hearing, click here.

For Waterloo-Cedar Falls (Iowa) Courier coverage, click here.

For full transcripts of testimonies presented at the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs' Oct. 17, 2011 "Hiring Heroes" field hearing, click here.

The Sucking Sound in Hooverville

Sgt. Schlitz is back from Bagram, and looking for work. The Eastern Iowa toy company for which he'd previously worked has been limping along in the bad economy. He re-joined the U.S. Army after a 21-year break in service, and deployed to Afghanistan with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.) 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division. He's got management and marketing experience, a hearty Midwestern work ethic, and a dogged sense of humor.

"Al Jazeera is hiring a graphic designer," he joked recently on his Facebook page. "Would that be a conflict of interest?"

According to Iowa National Guard officials, approximately 25 percent of the Red Bull soldiers who deployed to Afghanistan didn't have civilian jobs to which to return. By comparison, as of August 2011, the overall unemployment rate in Iowa is 6.1 percent.

The quick math? In round numbers, out of a 3,000-member brigade combat team, approximately 750 are without civilian employment. In the military, that's larger than the size of a battalion. In the civilian world--at least by the Small Business Administration's (SBA) definition--that's "large business" territory.

If a 25-percent unemployment bomb were to explode in the vicinity of a single Iowa town, you'd be looking at some significant economic damage. Because Iowa's citizen-soldiers are spread across the state, however, adding 750 more job-seekers to the state's pool of 101,900 unemployed workers doesn't exactly seem like a flood.

In other words, it's easy for people to say "thank you for your service." It's harder for people to see that there may be a systemic problem when it comes to keeping citizen-soldiers gainfully employed when they're not being deployed.

"I've never met someone who didn't want to help," says Saber2th, who is engaged in his own post-deployment job search. For 24 months prior to his own deployment to Afghanistan, he was on temporary full-time active-duty--while helping the 2-34th BCT prepare for deployment. Now, that mission is over, and the budget money that went with it is gone. "Everybody says civilian employers understand how military skills and attitudes benefit them. Everybody says employers will follow the law, and won't discriminate based on membership in the National Guard. Beyond that, no one seems to know what to do. Job fairs and resume-writing classes can only get soldiers so far."

The funny thing is, Saber2th is pretty sure he could market his specialized military skills elsewhere in the states. Arizona, say--or maybe Virginia. But that would most likely be military-contract work, and the wars can't go on forever. Besides, like Schlitz, he'd like to keep his young family in Iowa.

As a hardworking, capable taxpayer who has repeatedly answered the call of country (two overseas deployments) and community (during the floods of 2008), his fellow Iowans should want to keep him there, too.

Of course, unemployment in the ranks isn't just an Iowa problem: Consider that, in 2010, 20 percent of Vermont's 86th BCT returned to unemployment after the Iowa's Red Bull soldiers took over the mission in Eastern Afghanistan. At the time, Vermont's overall unemployment rate was 7 percent.

According to a recent Army news release, Florida's 53rd BCT returned from a 2010 deployment with 39 percent unemployment.

Following an August presidential announcement on veterans-employment initiatives, a White House press release noted:

• As of June, one million veterans were unemployed and the jobless rate for post-9/11 veterans was 13.3 percent. [National unemployment rate at the time was around 9.1 percent.]

• These veterans tend to be young and many worked in sectors that were among the hardest hit by the recession. Post-9/11 veterans were more likely to be employed in mining, construction, manufacturing, transportation and utilities—all industries that experienced significant drops in employment during 2008-2009.

• And as we end the war in Iraq and wind down the war in Afghanistan, over one million service members are projected to leave the military between 2011 and 2016.

Some cranks and wags will argue that there is nothing new here, that the poor are always with us, and so are jobless veterans. (Forget the Alamo and forget the Maine--anyone remember Hooverville?) According to a Pew Research Center report published this week:

More than eight-in-ten (84 percent) of these modern-era veterans say the American public has little or no understanding of the problems that those in the military face. Most of the public (71 percent) agrees. Many Americans also acknowledge that since the 9/11 attacks, the military and their families have made more sacrifices than the public at large. But even among this group, only 26 percent say this gap is "unfair," while 70 percent say that it's "just part of being in the military."

Seventy percent of America to veterans: "Welcome home. Embrace the suck."

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IOWA CITY VETS JOB FAIR IS TODAY, OCT. 6
A Veteran’s Job and Resource Fair will be held today, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Iowa National Guard Armory Complex in Iowa City. Sponsored by Iowa City Area Development, more than 50 employers and veterans resource providers will be present. A pre-event workshop, "How to Work a Job Fair," will be conducted 3:30 p.m. at the some location. For more information, click here. For a PDF brochure, click here.

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IOWA WORKFORCE COMPUTERS INSTALLED IN ARMORIES
As part of a wider reorganization of the state's employment offices, 42 computer-based "access points" to Iowa Workforce Development services have been installed in Iowa National Guard armories.

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PROPOSED EMPLOYER TAX CREDITS FOR HIRING VETS
As part of a comprehensive veterans employment speech in August 2011, President Barack Obama recently proposed employer tax credits ranging from $2,400 to $$4,800 for each unemployed veteran hired. (An earlier credit of up to $2,400 expired in 2010.) He also proposed similar tax credits for hiring veterans with service-connected disabilities, in amounts ranging from $4,800 to $9,600.

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RED BULLS RETURNING TO CAMPUS, RATHER THAN WORK?
Many returning Red Bull soldiers may be using their G.I. Bill benefits, rather than look for work. Reported in a Cedar Rapids Gazette/KCRG-TV9 article earlier this week, approximately one-third of those returning from Afghanistan planned to go to college rather than seek employment.

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STATEWIDE JOB FAIR FOR VETERANS, MIL-SPOUSES IS NOV. 8
A statewide "Hiring Our Heroes" job fair for veterans and military spouses will be held 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Nov. 8, at Hall "C" of Hy-Vee Hall, Des Moines, Iowa. The event is free. Registration is not required, but registrants will receive advance notice of exhibitors. Click here for a registration page. For more information, contact Iowa Workforce Development's Jeff Johnson; jeffrey_johnson AT iwd.iowa.gov; 515.281.9708; Gloria Cano; gloria_cano AT iwd.iowa.gov; 515.281.9649.