PD Editorial: Honoring vets for more than a single day

Veterans Day originally commemorated the 1918 armistice that effectively ended World War I.

So it's fitting that as this year's celebration arrives, the last troops are returning from Iraq, more than eight years after the U.S. invasion.

These servicemen and women can expect a warm welcome home. They deserve no less. Beyond our respect and gratitude, however, many of these veterans will need help as they pursue post-military careers.

The new GI Bill offers tuition assistance for veterans to attend college or vocational schools, and California's county veterans services offices have a long track record of securing housing, health care and other services for eligible vets.

Finding work may be the biggest challenge.

The unemployment rate for the 2 million veterans who served since 9/11 is 12.1 percent, a third higher than the national average of 9 percent

, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Labor Department

. With more than a million military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan over the next five years, the demand for jobs will intensify.

To help address that demand, the Obama administration announced two new initiatives: a "veterans' gold card" program that provides customized assistance at Labor Department employment centers and a new website, www.mynextmove.org/vets, to connect former service personnel to job openings across the nation.

President Barack Obama also asked Congress to approve one of the pieces of his stalled jobs plan, a tax credit of $2,400 for employers who hire jobless veterans and twice that for veterans who have been out of work for at least six months. The credits would be doubled for hiring disabled veterans.

"We ask our men and women in uniform to leave their families and their jobs and risk their lives to fight for our country," Obama said Monday, "and the last thing they should have to do is fight for a job when they come home."

A broad-based

economic

recovery will do more than any tax incentive to solve unemployment problems for veterans and civilians alike. But with few signs of a recovery and a schedule to scale back military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a tax credit would be a tangible show of support for returning veterans.