First lady tells vets ‘America has your back’

KHON 2 News Honolulu ^ | 11/14/2011 | Andrew Pereira

[presidio9]

First Lady Michelle Obama has a simple message for the country’s jobless veterans – “America has your back.”

Mrs. Obama spoke to a crowd of several hundred people Monday afternoon at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam about the importance of getting vets back into the workforce once their military careers are over.

“For a lot of folks making the transition to civilian life is hard, especially in the midst of a tough economy,” said the first lady.

According to figures by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average unemployment rate last year for vets who joined the military since September of 2001 was 11.5 percent, well above the current national jobless rate, which in October improved slightly to 9 percent.

Mrs. Obama spoke for about twelve minutes after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sponsored a job fair earlier in the day called Hiring Our Heroes.

About fifty-five employers took part in the job fair, which was expected to attract a crowd of about five hundred.

U.S. Navy veteran Dyan Jackson told Khon2 she’s currently unemployed, but was hoping to land a job with one of the companies at the event.

"It's pretty tough right now I think for everybody, but I keep faith though,” said Jackson. “I hope this will turn out to be a good thing for me.”

The job fair at the sprawling military base was the sixty-eighth held by the Chamber, which is planning one hundred such events nationwide. To date the Hiring Our Heroes campaign has helped more than 3,000 vets and military spouses land jobs, and has connected more than 55,000 veterans with more than 2,500 employers.

Mrs. Obama also touted a separate initiative called Joining Forces, which she and Jill Biden, the vice president’s wife, launched in April. The campaign asks businesses to commit to hiring vets, and so far, has received more than 125,000 pledges.

“What we're doing through Joining Forces is rallying all of America to recognize and honor and support our veterans and military families,” said the first lady.

Obama also highlighted a web site called Veterans Job Bank that currently lists more than half a million job. The web site is powered by the National Resource Directory.

[RobertoinAL]

I a famous German propagandist once said if you tell the people a lie enough times, they will eventually start to believe it..............HOPE AND CHANGE!

[AF_Blue]

In the case of the military, it’s unofficially known as “mandatory audience duty”.