U.S. Recent Veterans Still Face Awful Unemployment Numbers, Other Challenges

And it extends to less life-or-death matters. We've written before on the difficulties vets find in college. Veterans are visibly older than many of their classmates; they also struggle finding common ground with the guy who stressed over prom while they were in a dustbox overseas. Increasingly, they are becoming campus' least visible minority.

And don't forget this: two large scale wars were just conducted by an all-volunteer army. This is a first in American history. Civilians are more isolated than ever from the veteran experience. They're unable to socialize with the guy who'd really rather not talk about his experiences abroad. G.I. Bill dropouts happen regularly. There are dozens more examples. 

So yeah, we honored the vets today. But more veterans need to be hired, more veterans need to get help for mental issues, and more veterans need support when making the transition back into civilian life. Because their journey didn't really end in Fallujah or Kabul, and it's dumb to think this country can make it all better by just setting aside one day of the year. Here's a link to the Fallen Heroes fund; here's one for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran's Association. They need your support.