Every fourth Thursday in April, just as the weather would begin to get real nice, Bring Your Kid to Work Day brought excitement. Who were these mythical creatures that my Dad told stories about, jumping out of helicopters, walking across desserts, and killing a whole lot of bad guys. I pictured tall handsome men, ripped with muscles from head to toe, wearing baggy camo with lots of pockets and dog tags like in the movies. To my surprise, when Thursday morning came around, I saw an even more astonishing sight. I had seen people with disabilities and other deformities, but no one ever looked like they were actively in pain like this man did. He was a reddish orange, a color I had only seen in cartoons and his fiery skin was peeling from head to toe. Although, he sported the same uniform as everyone else: a long sleeve dress shirt with a Patagonia Vest 

“Connor, Meet Jerry” my Dad said. 

In 2005, Jerry Majetic was part of the 304th Psychological Operations Company in Iraq. On a mission riding through the outskirts of Baghdad, the squadron's humvee hit an IED, immediately killing two men and trapping Majetic in the blazing vehicle. Majetic sustained 2nd and 3rd degree burns on over eighty percent of his body but lived to tell the tale. Jerry’s story may sound out of the ordinary but is not unique at all. Veterans with severe injuries trying to enter the workforce face physical and psychological burdens that their non - veteran counterparts do not. In addition, veterans often have lower rates of higher education and a lack of understanding in popular fields that are not defense related.

According to the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, In Anne Zargas’ study from the University of Washington, she found that at the time, only 4.5 percent of active service members held a bachelor’s degree, and 65 percent of active service members said they needed assistance in finding employment. This figure was higher than nearly every other request for assistance, with veterans requesting mental health care at a significantly lower 47 percent. 

So, why doesn’t the government secure more funding for programs related to helping veterans and their transition into the workforce ?

When President Biden, in his 2023 State of the Union address, called upon Congress to keep our “nation’s one truly sacred obligation : to equip those who we send into harm’s way and care for them and their families when they come home” he became the only recent president to directly call out the challenges veterans entering the workplace face and to request funding for VA programs to combat them. However, if Senate Republicans keep dropping the ball on veteran related issues like their blockage of the 2022 burn pit bill, and failure to fund adequate job placement programs through the VA, veteran unemployment will only rise as the challenges veterans face aren’t going anywhere. Republicans need to act now not for Jerry, but for the veterans not as lucky as he is who haven't landed a job yet.