News From the Cause
After war, a new fight begins (Houma Today)
January 24, 2012
Houma native Brad Hebert was a Marine corporal during the siege of Fallujah in 2004 when he was injured by a roadside bomb that fractured his back, blew out his knee and left him with a traumatic brain injury.
When he got home, he faced a new struggle familiar to many veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan: He had trouble selling himself to potential employers.
“When I first got out, I went on several job interviews. They always ask what your work experience is, and I was a machine gunner. So they'd ask, ‘How does that relate to what you want to do now?' It doesn't. I wanted to expand my horizons, to try something new,” Hebert said. “But if your prior work experience doesn't qualify you, if you've been in for four, eight, 12 years and it doesn't relate to the job you're applying for, you probably won't get the position.”
Hebert eventually found work as an audio-visual integrator specializing in video conferencing, but his injuries have worsened, and he has moved to New Orleans to be closer to the Veterans Affairs Hospital as he seeks treatment to avoid getting risky back surgery.
An estimated 1 million veterans nationwide will be looking for work over the next five years, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The number of military veterans in the U.S. shrank from 27 million in 2000 to 25 million in 2009, as older veterans die, the VA estimates.
Over that same time, the population of disabled veterans grew from 2.3 million to 3.1 million. One quarter of all Gulf War II veterans who served after September 2001 reported having a service-related disability. That is nearly double the 13 percent disability rate among all living veterans.Click here to view more
