American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2011 – President Barack Obama today announced a series of administration initiatives to help military veterans find jobs.

During remarks at the Navy Yard here, the president proposed a set of tax credits for companies hiring veterans, announced a new task force to develop reforms that will help service members transition to civilian jobs or higher education, and challenged industry to hire more veterans.

“Today’s veterans are Americans who have done their duty,” the commander in chief said. “They have fought our wars with valor, from the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq to the mountains of Afghanistan.”

But many of those veterans find when they leave service that their military skills don’t qualify them for civilian jobs, the president said.

As of June, a million veterans were unemployed, and the jobless rate for post-9/11 vets was 13.3 percent, administration officials said. Another million veterans will return to the civilian workforce over the next five years, they said.

Obama cited a former combat medic and a financial specialist as examples of veterans facing difficulties transferring military skills to the civilian market.

Nick Colgin deployed to Afghanistan as a combat medic with the 82nd Airborne Division, Obama said. During his tour, Colgin saved the life of a French soldier who was shot in the head, and helped 42 people escape from a flooding river.

“He earned a Bronze Star for his actions,” the president said. “But when Nick got back home to Wyoming, he couldn’t get a job as a first responder.”

Colgin had to take classes he easily could have taught before he could get a civilian job with the same duties he performed daily in Afghanistan, Obama said.

Maria Canales was a financial specialist in the Army who’d served in Iraq and finished a degree in business management when she returned, the president said. Still, she couldn’t find a job in accounting or finance.

“If you can save a life in Afghanistan, you can save a life in an ambulance in Wyoming,” he said. “If you can oversee millions of dollars in assets in Iraq, you can help a business balance its books here at home.”

Government must do more to help veterans transition from military to civilian work, Obama said.

Administration officials said a new task force, led by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, will develop reforms, including a “reverse boot camp,” to ensure service members receive the training, education, and credentials they need to transition to the civilian workforce or to pursue higher education.

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