Employer of the Year

[prole]

Who needs an auto bailout when there are plenty of positions just waiting to be filled...

 

US Soldiers Re-enlisting Because of Poor Economy

By Associated Press Writers John Milburn And Stephen Manning, Associated Press Writers 59 mins ago

 

FORT RILEY, Kan. – Sgt. Ryan Nyhus spent 14 months patrolling the deadly streets of Baghdad, where five members of his platoon were shot and one died. As bad as that was, he would rather go back there than take his chances in this brutal job market.

 

Nyhus re-enlisted last Wednesday, and in so doing joined the growing ranks of those choosing to stay in the U.S. military because of the bleak economy.

 

"In the Army, you're always guaranteed a steady paycheck and a job," said the 21-year-old Nyhus. "Deploying's something that's going to happen. That's a fact of life in the Army — a fact of life in the infantry."

 

In 2008, as the stock market cratered and the housing market collapsed, more young members of the Army, Air Force and Navy decided to re-up. While several factors might explain the rise in re-enlistments, including a decline in violence in Iraq, Pentagon officials acknowledge that bad news for the economy is usually good news for the military....

 

...Alex Stewart joined the Army two years ago, when the factory where he worked as a welder started laying off. He was sent to Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division, which suffered 87 deaths last year, the highest total suffered by the 20,000-member unit since the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan began.

 

When his hitch was up in earlier this year, the 32-year-old from Grand Rapids, Mich., didn't hesitate to re-up for five more years.

 

"I want a stable life for my wife in a very shaky economy," Stewart said. "There were no other options."

 

Stewart's new assignment will take him to Germany, where he will serve as a truck driver, though it is always possible he could be sent back into combat.

 

"I figure if I do another five or 10 years in the Army," he said, "the economy will turn around and I can get a truck-driving job."...

 

...Marine Staff Sgt. Angela Mink, who was injured in a helicopter accident in Iraq in 2004 and now works in public affairs at the Corps' New River air station in North Carolina, said the thought of taking a civilian job "without my fellow Marines just didn't appeal to me." Moreover, she had little hope of finding a private-sector job that pays as well as the Marines.

 

"Equivalent pay is nonexistent, once you factor in insurance premiums, housing costs," said Mink, 37. "And we would definitely have had to relocate. I have a child with a disability and what civilian employer is going to take that into consideration when they think of moving you somewhere?"

 

And so the married mother of five signed up recently for four more years. --from AP 12/2/08

[111]

sounds fun! 8D

Edited December 4, 2008 by 111

[pc313]

I'm to old at 50 to enlist,oh well!

[pc313]

sounds fun! 8D

 

"WOW" 700 post,your old too!