Breaking work's chain of command

I subscribe to military.com, a weekly e-mail report distributed by the job resource monster.com and dedicated to the opportunities for US veterans. (I'm a vet from the '70s, post-Vietnam, but I feel some kinship with today's more combat-tested troops My unit, 1st Cavalry, 7th Battalion, only faced the threat of combat with a superpower while out on the Iron Curtain.)

This week's report includes a brief story about joblessness among returning Iraq veterans. This is a story as old as military service; troops who return from combat have often struggled to find a job. For all the sticker-patriotism that cruises on the back of SUVs I've seen, employers still aren't making their contribution to the war they say they support. Vets 20-24 face a jobless rate twice as high as non-vets in the same age group.

Military.com got purchased by Monster in 2004, after starting its life as Military Advantage. It's got 6 million members and markets to them via a weekly e-mail that includes links to stories like the one above. There's media venture capital in there, too. The About page says that "Military.com has raised over $30 million from leading venture investors and strategic partners, including A&E Television Networks." The top management team is all veterans, with the exception of one senior marketing VP, a Harvard MBA who created the Nabisco Web site Nabisco Direct.

The Web site isn't overrun with ads. It's got a low-key, here's-the-facts feel, a rare thing in a medium that markets to such a large group. It's free to join. I always include my military service on my resume, dated as that experience is, but I can't recall ever being asked about it in an interview. Military.com has a middle of the road editorial slant. It's been critical of the way the Iraq war has been run, commenting on strategies that simply chew up the troops without a clear plan. In that regard, it has kinship with more left-leaning Web media like the Salon.com.

Last week Salon ran an article that "investigated" the high use of waivers to get those kids into am Army being sent to Iraq. Waivers are used, just like they were in my '70s Army, to admit people with criminal offenses, both minor and otherwise. That's not a new story, either — but that's because military service can be a poor career move: Low pay, great danger, and then not enough help when you return from public service.

Support the war, or don't — but give a veteran a job chance and repay what you owe as a citizen.