Letters: Out of harm’s way, needing jobs

Re “A jobless crisis for National Guard soldiers,” Nov. 24

Your article was very informative. We also must not forget those citizen-soldiers who were wounded during their deployments and can no longer perform the duties of the civilian jobs they left behind. This is a tragedy that Congress has dragged its feet to address.

For proof of how fast our elected leaders forget about our National Guard troops and reservists, one need only go back to September, when Senate Republicans blocked the Veterans Job Corps bill. What was particularly sad was that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a former prisoner of war, opposed the bill.

We need to take care of soldiers who answer the multiple calls for deployment. We especially need to create opportunities for them so that they won’t have to volunteer to go into harm’s way just so they can feed their families.

Kimberlyn Hearns

San Bernardino

As an Army reservist myself, I have had my share of employment problems. And while the jobs programs mentioned in the article are indeed helping, there are better ways to employ reservists.

The Defense Department would do better to create grants for cities to allow them to increase their police and firefighter forces and to increase the size of the Active Guard Reserve program, as neither of these employers are annoyed by reservists going on deployment.

Chris Choi

Rancho Palos Verdes

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