By John Bardis

Published December 13, 2011 | FoxNews.com

As we head into this holiday season, we remember that among our many blessings is that we indeed live in the land of the free and the brave.  

Our liberties extend to our free marketplace, where hard work, talent and determination can lead to almost unlimited career opportunities.  Ironically, the brave men and women who have proudly served and sacrificed so much to protect the freedoms we enjoy are struggling to find their opportunity to pursue the American Dream.

Officials at the U.S. Labor Department say that unemployment among veterans age 18-24 years old tops 20 percent, compared with the national rate of about nine percent.  And the situation is expected to worsen after 10,000 service members return from Afghanistan and 46,000 come home from Iraq by year’s end — many of whom wounded or suffering from mental trauma. A major factor in veteran high unemployment rate is their struggle with fitting in, adjusting to civilian life and a vast majority struggle with depression and other emotional anguish without seeking mental help, given its perceived stigma.

As we bring back 10,000 service members from Afghanistan and 46,000 come home from Iraq by year’s end, the situation will only become worse— and these veterans are returning to a drastically different economy from when they enlisted.

Premium content from Atlanta Business Chronicle by Nathan Smith; Date: Friday, December 9, 2011, 6:00am EST

Three of the 30 chiefs came down to [King] David to the rock at the cave of Adullam ... At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!” So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the Lord ... “God forbid that I should do this!” he said. “Should I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives?” Because they risked their lives to bring it back, David would not drink it.

Such were the exploits of the three mighty men.

1 Chronicles 11:15-19

It’s easy to read about an ancient event and dismiss the relevance to us 3,000 years later. Philistines? Kings? Caves? Yeah, OK. Let me check my iPhone for that. Mighty men? You must mean guys dressed in tight pants, scuffling over a leather ball. In a culture where voyeurism is counterfeited as reality and consumption often elbows out contemplation, it is still surprising that once-heroic ideals of bravery and self-sacrifice might struggle for relevance today.

The fact is that mighty men and women do exist, and America has more than her fair share of them — many on daily missions behind enemy lines. But, if we are honest with ourselves, these men and women often don’t really look very mighty at all. They can be quiet and unassuming and rarely match the Rambo stereotype often seen on the big screen. Surely these men and women cannot be mighty — they look like us.

When we lift the veil and look closely and carefully, only then do we notice that a lot of our brave men and women are facing daunting re-entry challenges:

• 33,000 combat-wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan.
• 6,000 dead from Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Only 10 Medals of Honor awarded (seven of them postmortem).
• 107,000 homeless veterans.
• 1 million unemployed veterans.

For Immediate Release  November 21, 2011, Contact: Sheila Bridgeforth, 973-802-6852,  Karen Moore, 973-802-8533 

NEWARK, N.J. – Prudential Financial, Inc. [NYSE:PRU] will contribute $6.2 million to 10 nonprofit groups that help U.S. military veterans and their families transition back into civilian life.

“Prudential is committed to helping veterans develop meaningful careers after their military service and between deployments. Because this is not always easy, especially for wounded veterans, our contributions support nonprofit organizations that provide not just professional development but also a broad mix of services veterans critically need to successfully return to civilian life,” said Lori High, president of Prudential Group Insurance and executive sponsor of Prudential’s Veterans Initiative.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                            

Atlanta-based organization welcomes the passing of new legislation to train and equip military veterans with civilian jobs and recommends its own nationally-recognized best practices

ATLANTA, Ga. (November 17, 2011) – Hire Heroes USA, a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that uses a personal approach to prepare veterans for the civilian job market through strategic job search, self-marketing and resume revision – responded favorably to legislation unanimously passed by the House of Representatives (422 – 0) and the Senate (95 – 0) on Wednesday.

Hire Heroes USA welcomes the prospect of employment-education and transition-assistance programs as well as the provision of tax incentives for companies that hire veterans.

“This landmark legislation with bi-partisan support will make companies take a closer look at hiring veterans entering the civilian job market,” said Brian Stann, president of Hire Heroes USA. “These tax credits will further expose the extraordinarily talented pool of veterans as some of the very best employees, leaders and entrepreneurs our country has to offer. They need only to be given the opportunity to showcase their skills. We would be honored to advise the leaders that are developing the new military transition proposal aimed at training our veterans in career readiness. Our experience at helping veterans get hired would be invaluable to this task force and ultimately help create an effective transition program for veterans.”