If it isn't one thing it is another for the people who agree to serve in our National Guard and reserve forces. If having to go to Iraq and Afghanistan wouldn't be a shock on their system enough, how about ignoring the requirements of their civilian occupations? That certainly won't help their return to civilian life.
Today, the GAO issued a new report regarding reservists and National Guard professional licensing. And with all we have heard now about the problems with troops coming home to financial hardships, you would think they would at least pay attention to this issue. Well, we are talking about the Bush Administration, so I guess this should be no surprise. From the report....
Since 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) has relied on more than 600,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve components to support various operations abroad and at home. In particular, from September 2001 to July 2007, the department deployed more than 434,000 reservists to support operations in DOD's Central Command area of responsibility that includes Afghanistan and Iraq. Furthermore, DOD has modified its mobilization policy, which had previously limited the cumulative amount of time that reservists could be involuntarily called to active duty for the Global War on Terrorism. Under DOD's new policy, which went into effect in January 2007, involuntary mobilizations for reserve component service members are generally limited to no more than 12 months, and there are no cumulative limits on these involuntary mobilizations. While on active duty, reservists may be unable to take the required professional development courses or periodic tests needed to retain their professional currency in fields such as accounting or software engineering. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) protects rights of qualifying National Guard members, reservists, and certain other members of the uniformed services returning to their civilian employment after being absent due to military service. The act, however, does not explicitly address issues related to licenses and certifications.
And of course, no one has even explored this issue...
The degree to which reservists serving on active duty have had difficulty maintaining professional licenses or certifications in their civilian careers is unclear, because neither DOD's Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs nor the reserve components collect the necessary data to track and monitor the issue. While all members of the Ready Reserve are required to provide their civilian employment information upon joining the reserves and to review and update that information each year, the required information includes employment status, the employer's name, the employer's mailing address, the civilian's job title, and the total number of years in the current occupation, but does not include information on the impact active duty service potentially has on maintaining licenses and certifications.
Now I can tell you that in health care fields, getting your license back after they have been expired can be a costly and time consuming problem. First you have to take the continuing education courses (which cost) then you have to pay for your license to be re-instated (which costs more than a simple renewal).
But on the bright side, they can pay for and assist in such license renewal...
In a related action, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 gave the Secretary of Defense authority to pay for expenses for members of the armed forces to obtain professional credentials and necessary examinations as long as the credentials were not a prerequisite for appointment in the armed forces, 15 and the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness issued a memorandum 16 on February 12, 2007, establishing DOD policy and guidance for setting up discretionary programs for the payment of professional credentialing expenses to military members. According to the memorandum, military departments may pay credentialing expenses if the preponderance of a servicemember’s assigned military duties are covered by the credential and the credential has been approved for those assigned duties.
But as I mentioned already, they haven't been monitoring the need to do so. A kinda "don't ask, don't help" if you will.
With some showing as many as one in four vets from this war being homeless, I kinda doubt that ignoring their occupational licenses and allowing them to expire has helped matters much. Supporting the troops my rear...