Iraq Vets Hit by Financial Woes

Many soldiers returning from Iraq are finding themselves up against a new enemy: their finances. Unemployment, lack of credit, and foreclosures all seem to be hitting veterans harder than the average citizen, the New York Times reports. "You fill out a job application and you can’t write ‘long-range reconnaissance and sniper skills,' " says one vet who delivered pizza for a year while looking desperately for a better paying job. 

Those wounded in action have it hardest, the New York Times reports, as they wait for months for disability checks and struggle to land jobs. There's no data on military foreclosures, but the VA says requests for financial help have "gone almost straight up this year." And a 2007 study shows that the jobless rate for combat vets dwarfs the US average. So what's the government doing about it? Two new bills aim to help veterans keep their homes, but aid is short-term and unlikely to save those already struggling.
(More US military stories.)