Ok, my job in the Army is often times customer service oriented and sometimes you just get tired of it you know. How many times can you fake a smile or a laugh?

Any way, the real reason I am writting this post is about my new job. As you may have read before, I was chossen to stay behind on this deployment so I am now what is refered to as "Rear-D". My job in rear-d is something of an issue with me I guess. Being in the Army you meet a lot of Soldiers that should not be in the Army due to some physical or Mental condition. I put Mental in bold because as rear-d I have met a lot of them. Here is where the issue begins, my new job is to proccess some these Soldier's chapter packets to remove them from the Army. Most cases I don't mind, actually in most cases I feel good about getting rid of some of these "less than desirable" individules. The tough part is when you get that one Soldier, the one who got hurt in Iraq or Afghanistan or durring some kind of training getting ready to go to one of those two countries. I get the packet and read thru it only to find they are being separated from duty due to the fact that they can no longer perform their duties like they could due to the injuries they sustained. I understand not letting them go back to war but we should be trying everything we can to creat jobs for these Soldiers especialy when they realy want to stay in and continue to serve. I have seen the deep depression in their eyes when I hand them thier new orders to clear instalation and be removed from active duty. This part realy hurts. I suppose that you have to take the bad with the good but no where does it say I have to like it one bit. I have recently sent out a memmo requesting that some sort of support jobs be created for the injured Vets. Some way to keep them in the technical capacities in wich they served so valiently. I hope that it gets sent up to the right people. I hate to see a Hero be tossed to the side like that. That has already happened to many times in the past not to draw attention to it now and try to correct this grave mistake.

America's veterans embody the ideals upon which America was founded more than 229 years ago.
Steve Buyer

Because all of us believe and understand in the fabric of the common bond of why we call ourselves American is to care for the men and women who wear the uniform; and when they take off the uniform, we care for them when they are veterans.
Steve Buyer

It is unacceptable that disabled veterans in Illinois rank at the bottom of the list when it comes to disability pay. We owe our disabled veterans more than speeches, parades and monuments.
Dick Durbin

Taking care of our veterans requires more than just funding.
Sam Graves