IAVA’s Paul Rieckhoff and veteran Jessi Tseng join Andrea Mitchell Reports to talk about the employment opportunities for veterans and whether a GI bill is needed.

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

TODAY

A crowd of veterans and military spouses attend a career fair on the NYC USS Intrepid.

Updated April 6: The numbers are in: Hiring our Heroes helped tens of thousands of veterans in their search for employment. 

Nearly 5,000 veterans and military spouses attended the New York, Chicago and Texas job fairs, which were held in conjunction with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

More than 19,000 people registered for the Military.com and Monster.com virtual career fair. Visitors came from all 50 states and dozens of overseas locations.

Organizations came with job opportunities in hand, including rock band KISS, who received more than 500 applicants for their roadie job. NBC News' parent company Comcast pledged to hire 1,000 veterans over the next three years, and Capital One announced that they will join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's program in a bid to engage the business community in hiring 500,000 vets and military spouses over the next three years. 

This is just the start: There will be more than 400 other job fairs throughout the next year. Find a list of upcoming events here. 

Here are some resource links for veterans:

• Military.com's jobs board, where you can also find a skills translator and a network of veterans
• Race to Hire, an organization that will host 20 career fairs over the next year
• Milicruit, a group that aims to find jobs for 10,000 vets and military spouses
• Navy Times career site, which also offers information about transitions, college and the G.I. Bill
• Wounded Warrior Project, an organization aimed at honoring and empowering injured service members
• Department of Labor Vet Employment Assistant, a government resource that offers recovery and employment assistance
• FedsHireVets, a government website to help vets find jobs in the federal government
• National Resource Directory, a partnership with the Departments of Defense, Labor and Veterans Affairs

Hiring our Heroes is an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce. Find a list of upcoming job fairs here. 

More on Hiring our Heroes: 
Ann Curry's photographs reveal courage, grit of America's soldiers
To land jobs vets should leave ‘yes sir!’ at door
Jill Biden: 'If you want to get the job done, hire a veteran'
Portraits of veterans looking for work 

Sen. Jack Reed, a West Point graduate and former Army Ranger, talks about his efforts to help homeless veterans find housing and jobs. 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

Veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have a jobless rate that's almost 30 percent higher than the rest of the country.

At sponsored job fairs held throughout the country on March 28, veterans seeking jobs reflected on their service for their country and their hope to find meaningful work now that they’re home. 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

Military.com

Rear Admiral T. McCreary (Ret.) and president of Military.com

Veterans face many challenges when they return home and start looking for work, everything from discrimination to a lack of training and skills for civilian jobs. But in the end, it’s up to vets themselves to leave the military behind and adapt to the nonmilitary work world.

That’s the message Rear Admiral T. McCreary (Ret.) who is president of Military.com sent during our live Web chat Wednesday. He took online questions from vets and their loved ones while attending the Hiring Our Heroes jobs fair event -- an initiative by NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- on the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier in New York. 

Here’s a sampling of the Q&A:

Jeremy asked:

“Why can't veterans find jobs?”

McCreary answered:

“Vets can find jobs. It's just hard work and requires a lot of learning and patience. There are jobs out there, it’s just finding them, translating skills and learning how to job hunt.”

And he defended efforts to focus on veteran’s unemployment flight, against readers who questioned why returning military deserved more help than those who never served.

April asked:

“Why do veterans deserve any more job placement assistance than folks who have not served?”

McCreary answered:

“I don't think it’s an issue of deserving more but leveling the playing field. Most vets join right out of school and have never had to job hunt. They've lived in a unique culture and speak a different language. As a result, they don't know enough to be competitive. I think all these programs are designed to bring veterans up to speed and help them compete in the broader job market.

"That said, many feel serving ones country should offer them a little leg up when job hunting as they are behind their piers in assimilating into the corporate world. Whether that is military service of some other type of national service, most think our vets do deserve some additional help to ensure they can ‘rejoin’ society in a more normal transition.”

For more of this enlightening discussion and targeted tips for vets struggling to find job, check out a replay of the Web chat here:

NBC’s Charles Hadlock reports live from a job fair at Fort Hood, Texas. Hadlock discusses why soldiers are pushed to take classes on how to find a job after their service is finished. 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

NBC News and the Chamber of Commerce hosted a job fair for veterans at the USS Intrepid in New York City. Here are some photos tweeted with the hashtag #HiringOurHeroes. Click the pictures below and then "View Original" for more caption details.

At the event? Tweet us your pics with that hashtag. The best will show up on this page. 

More from Hiring our Heroes:
Young veterans share their skills, dreams
Capital One, Comcast pledge to hire vets
Comcast and NBC Universal will hire 1,000 veterans 
Hiring our Heroes 'unlocks the potential' of vets 
Jill Biden: Veterans will 'get the job done' 
Bloomberg: NYC is committed to hiring veterans 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.

MSNBC’s Richard Lui reports from the USS Intrepid, where a jobs fair for veterans is taking place on Wednesday. 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

Dr. Jill Biden spoke with TODAY’s Ann Curry Wednesday aboard New York City's USS Intrepid, where the Hiring for Heroes job fair was in full swing. A Blue Star mom, Biden has teamed up with first lady Michelle Obama on the White House’s Joining Forces initiative and says every American has a responsibility to help returning veterans and their families.

"These men and women are leaders,” said Biden. "They’ve been on the battlefield. They have true grit...If you want to get the job done, hire a veteran." 

The responsibility extends to everyone, she said, from individuals to corporations. "Schools have a role to play, creating an awareness of military children in the classroom…Individuals have a role to play. Finding out who’s in your neighborhood, who can you lend a hand to? Who can you say, ‘Let me cut your lawn?'" 

When Dr. Biden's son Beau was deployed to Iraq, a neighbor came over during a snowstorm and shoveled the driveway, walking away without a word. "The first lady and I are saying, commit to an act of kindness. Every American can do something."

The vice president's wife often mentions Beau, who served as a major in the Delaware Army National Guard. When his unit deployed, he left two young children behind. The experience gave Dr. Biden a first-hand look at the impact a deployed soldier has on the lives of family members. Beau served in Iraq for one year, and after completing his deployment returned home to work at the Delaware Department of Justice. He is now the state's Attorney General.

Biden's upcoming children's book, "Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops" (Simon and Schuster, June 5), teaches kids who have parents in the military how to cope with deployments. She has said she will donate all net author proceeds to charities to support military families and children. 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched the Hiring Our Heroes initiative in March 2011 to help veterans and military spouses find meaningful employment. Hiring Our Heroes hosted more than 120 hiring fairs in 24 states in its first year, and 2012 has seen an expansion, with hiring fairs in 400 communities across the country.

More from Hiring our Heroes:
Young veterans share their skills, dreams
Capital One, Comcast pledge to hire vets
Comcast and NBC Universal will hire 1,000 veterans 
Hiring our Heroes 'unlocks the potential' of vets 
Jill Biden: Veterans will 'get the job done' 
Bloomberg: NYC is committed to hiring veterans 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.

In Congress, multiple bills are in the works to either directly fund veterans’ employment programs or encourage businesses to step up. Rep. Tim Griffin and Rep. Bill Pascrell discuss.

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

Col. Jack Jacobs talks about the unemployment rate and says “military veterans are the most qualified people anywhere,” because they have had a lot of responsibilities at a young age. Sen. John Manchin joins the discussion to talk about his initiative “I Hire Veterans,” saying, “it’s easy to talk the talk but you got to walk the walk.”

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

Mario Anzuoni / Reuters file

KISS, who will tour with Motley Crue this summer, has pledged to hire a veteran to work as a roadie.

KISS needs a roadie — and they want to hire a veteran to help out.

The band, who are touring with Motley Crue this summer, have been long-time supporters of the U.S. military, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Wounded Warrior Project. Watch their troop salute here. 

They're participating in Hiring our Heroes to give a job to a touring set carpenter who will travel with the band from July 14 through Sept. 25.

The lucky veteran who gets the gig will be part of the team that assembles the KISS stage set, helps run effects during the show and takes down the set afterwards. Applicants do not need to be a trained carpenter, but will work long hours. 

To apply for this job, send an email to hiringourheroes@uschamber.com with your resume and contact details.

More from Hiring our Heroes:
Young veterans share their skills, dreams
Capital One, Comcast pledge to hire vets
Comcast and NBC Universal will hire 1,000 veterans 
Hiring our Heroes 'unlocks the potential' of vets 
Jill Biden: Veterans will 'get the job done' 
Bloomberg: NYC is committed to hiring veterans 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.

Fresh from a tour of duty in Iraq where he earned a Bronze Star, Ryan Gallucci didn’t expect a simple job interview to be such a memorably unpleasant experience.

“I was interviewing with a P.R. agency when my military service came up. Some of the questions got a little prying.  ‘Oh, so what did you do over there? And what was that like?’ ” 

Though he was called back for subsequent interviews, Gallucci said the experience left a “sour taste in my mouth.” Now the deputy legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization, Gallucci suspects the interviewer for that other job may have been more curious about his mental health than his experiences in Iraq.

Research shows he may be right: Some employers are wary of hiring veterans because of potential mental health issues.

“There’s a whole host of questions you can’t legally ask, but I must say that somehow in interviews it comes out,” says Jim Pabis, a Colonel in the New York Army National Guard and Iraq combat vet who runs an executive search firm in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Nearly half of employers -- 46 percent -- said PTSD or other mental health issues were challenges in hiring employees with military experience, according to a 2010 Society of Human Resource Management survey. And a 2011 survey of 831 hiring managers by the Apollo Research Institute found that 39 percent were "less favorable" toward hiring military personnel when considering war-related psychological disorders.

About 20 percent of Iraq or Afghanistan veterans will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder brought on by living through extremely stressful or life-threatening events; the more tours of duty, the greater the risk of PTSD. It can be devastating if untreated and lead to depression, panic attacks and drug abuse, and can increase the risk of suicide. Veterans commit one in five of all suicides in the U.S.

Yet recent high-profile news about veteran violence and its possible links to PTSD may speak louder than realities of the illness. It’s treatable, rarely leads to violent acts and is not uncommon -- six to eight percent of Americans will develop PTSD in their lifetime.

“In the first place, most veterans do not develop PTSD. The minority that do have the same kinds of reactions of people exposed to a hurricane or a car accident,” says Josef Ruzek, Ph.D., director of the dissemination and training division at the National Center for PTSD. 

The PTSD fear factor isn’t new. “We’ve seen the stigma of the crazy war veteran before.  It was especially harsh after Vietnam, when the nation didn't really have the kind of support for men and women who serve in the military that they have today,” says Gallucci.

That support, which includes attempts by the Department of Veterans Affairs to educate the public about PTSD and to encourage affected vets to seek treatment, may have unintended consequences. More civilian employers know that servicemen and women are at greater risk for PTSD.

“There’s been a major cultural shift in how soldiers speak up about the mental toll of war, but also a potential backlash against our attempt to de-stigmatize PTSD,” Gallucci says.

Finding a civilian job can already by a hurdle, particularly for Iraq-war era vets. Unemployment rates have been consistently higher for this group than non-civilians of the same ages.  According to a recent report by the Department of Veterans Affairs, male veterans ages 18 to 24 who have served since September of 2001 have an unemployment rate of just over 29 percent, compared 17.6 percent of nonveterans of the same ages.  

There’s no evidence that the higher unemployment rate for young vets is due to fears about mental health issues. In fact, research shows there is a positive bias toward hiring a veteran if she or he has a clearly transferable, comparable skill set to a non-veteran, says Meredith Kleykamp, Ph.D, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, who researches consequences of military service and is married to a veteran.

There may also be a discrepancy in how veterans perceive they are being treated, Kleykamp says, versus how they actually are.

“So few people are actually serving in these wars.  There may be employer ignorance. And vets may feel there is a lack of understanding from people and employers that they meet,” she says.

Still, while experts welcome greater public awareness of the difficulties veterans may face, that growing understanding might work against them when it comes to presumptions of mental health.

“Civilians may feel like, ‘How could he not be damaged by something like that?” Kleykamp says.

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. Below, watch NBC's Janet Shamlian discuss job fairs for spouses of veterans.

John Wolfe, a career expert for Monster/Military.com, hosted TODAY's resume and interview workshops. Here are his 10 tips to crafting the perfect resume for Wednesday's virtual job fair.

Mistake 10: Including too much military jargon so a human resources professional cannot determine where you would best fit with the company.

Solution: Describe the skills that you gained in the military in a generally understandable manner. Don't focus on one aspect of your position but your responsibilities and accomplishments as a whole and that are not just specific to the military. The responsibility for translating your skills into English is yours! An effective tool is the Military.com Military Skills Translator.

Mistake 9: Including multiple phone numbers.

Solution: Include only your primary phone number and make sure you have an answering machine or voice mail on that number along with a courteous professional greeting.

Mistake 8: Leaving off your email address.

Solution: Always include your email address. This is the second most popular way, after the phone, the vast majority of employers and recruiters correspond.

Mistake 7: Including a picture on the resume.

Solution: Leave off all pictures. In the United States, this information could be considered discriminatory.

Mistake 6: Adding personal information about yourself, including marital status and kids.

Solution: Leave this off all together. You do not want to allow the hiring manager to make certain assumptions they are not allowed by law to make. The HR professional may feel that you will not travel, etc. because of your family.

Mistake 5: Including any information that would specifically lead a reasonable person to know from a resume the applicant's race, color or religious affiliation. 

Solution: Leave off all information of any group or award that specifically reveals your race, color or religious background. This background is a hot potato for an employer and could cause them to immediately eliminate the resume from consideration.

Mistake 4: Submitting resumes longer than three pages.

Solution: The longest any resume should be is two pages. Remember that a resume is to tell a brief career history — the emphasis on brief! Many people feel they will look better to an employer having a longer resume. The reality is, the reverse is true. A curriculum vitae that is used in countries outside the United States and Canada should be longer, but not a resume.

Mistake 3: Using the word "I" anywhere in the resume.

Solution: A resume should be written in third person.

Mistake 2: Using elaborate or non-standard fonts.

Solution: Use a very standard font, like one that is used in a book. Both people and optical character readers (OCR) can read the standard fonts such as Times New Roman or Courier. Remember: The purpose of sending a resume to an employer is to have it read.

Mistake 1: Having a resume that does not match the person.

Solution: People are brought in for interviews based on their resumes. If the person during the interview does not match the resume, the company feels they have been misled.

Find more of John Wolfe's career tips on Monster.com and Military.com.

More from Hiring our Heroes:
Young veterans share their skills, dreams
Capital One, Comcast pledge to hire vets
Comcast and NBC Universal will hire 1,000 veterans 
Hiring our Heroes 'unlocks the potential' of vets 
Jill Biden: Veterans will 'get the job done' 
Bloomberg: NYC is committed to hiring veterans 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.

Special to NBC Latino

Ismael "Junior" Ortiz stands in the center with Marines in 2010.

Ismael Ortiz, Jr., otherwise known as “Junior,” spends his days trying to make sure every U.S. military veteran gets a job. As the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Veterans’ Employment and Training Services, he makes sure programs President Obama has initiated to help veterans are implemented.

He will be at tomorrow’s Hiring Our Heroes Veteran Employment Fair aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York City to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Read more at NBCLatino.com.

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.

A version of this opinion article appeared Mar. 27, 2012, on page A13 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Corporate America's Military Opportunity. It is being re-posted here with permission. 

By Ann Curry
NBC News

In his State of the Union address this January, President Obama rang a bell that is still sounding 10 years after our wars began in Afghanistan and Iraq. "At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations," he said about our men and women in uniform. "They're not consumed with personal ambition. They don't obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example."

We can do better than imagine. We can remember.

As World War II drew to a close, many Americans worried about how to assimilate returning veterans. Some feared the economic boom of the war would quickly fall back to the hard times of the Great Depression as millions in uniform arrived home looking for work. But these military veterans—the Greatest Generation, in Tom Brokaw's phrase—had the resilience and leadership skills to become not a weight but an engine driving the economy and the American Century.

Whether today's military men and women—the best-trained and most experienced military force in the history of our nation—can similarly drive our economy largely depends on whether we remember our history.

After World War II, veterans were rewarded with the G.I. bill and favorable housing loans. Perhaps as important, they came to be seen as a boon to any business that wanted to recruit disciplined, mission-oriented and motivated workers. Veterans then even wore military veteran pins on their lapels because it singled them out as worthy of special consideration as potential employees.

Today's veterans, many of whom enlisted after America was attacked on 9/11, are as deserving as their World War II predecessors. And putting them to work may well be the most selfish thing our nation can do right now. Where else might any business find better, more "can-do" men and women?

When a person has been repeatedly willing to run toward battle under orders despite the risk of death, imagine what he or she might do to inspire a company to find the grit to succeed. How do you say "no" to working overtime when your colleague is a former war veteran who is willing to say "yes?"

About veterans whose skills have been honed in hostile environments, Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn notes that, "Whether they're part of a factory floor team, whether they're part of an executive group trying to steer a company in a certain direction, cohesion, coherence, the ability to follow others and work with others toward a common goal is incredibly important in generating those widgets and the clothes and the computers and the smartphones of GDP."

The good news is that corporate America is beginning to wake up to the benefits of bringing a fighting spirit into their companies. Executives are learning that despite misconceptions, the vast majority of veterans—82%-90% of men and 80% of women returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the RAND Corporation—do not have a post-traumatic stress syndrome that could affect their readiness to work.

Prudential, FedEx, Gamestop, JetBlue, J.P. Morgan Chase, Coca-Cola, Sears, AT&T, NBC Universal and its parent company Comcast are among an increasing number of companies that are now seeking to hire veterans.

Gary Taylor, a top executive at power company Entergy (and a retired captain in the Air Force), puts it this way: "The skills that they bring back are a real competitive advantage, whether they're electricians, mechanics, computer scientists, engineers—that skill seems to fit well."

And even when a skill does not fit exactly, why would anyone doubt whether former Apache helicopter pilots or company master sergeants would be trainable? The sooner more American businesses realize the value of this sudden wealth of returning military veterans, the sooner we can stop worrying about our economy.

Our military veterans have exceeded all expectations. What could our businesses, our economy and our nation accomplish if we put their talents and courage to work here at home?

Ms. Curry, an NBC News anchor and correspondent, has traveled six times to Iraq and Afghanistan and is a daughter of a war veteran. On March 28 on NBC's "Today" show, she will help broadcast "Hiring Our Heroes Today," a nationwide hiring fair put on by NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, hosted at the USS Intrepid museum.

By Jay Blackman
NBC News

Long after the welcome home ceremonies, the standing ovations at sporting events and in airports, and the hugs and tears, reality sets in for veterans returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. For a large number of them, the new battle is for a full time job in an economy where so many other folks are out of work. The numbers tell the story. According to the United States Department of Labor, veterans who have served on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001 are experiencing a 12.1 percent unemployment rate, with young male vets under the age of 25 suffering the worst -- a 29.1 percent unemployment rate.

There is hope, however, in the form of job fairs sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The program, which started last year, hosted 100 job fairs nationwide, successfully pairing veterans with positions in the private sector.  This year, the Chamber of Commerce partnered with NBC Universal to host ‘Hiring our Heroes,’ and expanded the number of job fairs to 400.   

So far, 5,000 employers have hired more than 8,000 returning veterans.

Click here to find a job fair near you.

For one veteran, Marine Sgt. Edzavier Reese, it wasn't just his skills that got him a job, it was incredible timing and luck.  He had bounced from job to job in California after finishing his five deployments -- four to Iraq and one to Afghanistan -- but now Reese was looking for more.

"I was still stuck trying to be like, ‘I want to like something the way I like being in the Marines,’" he said.

Marine Sgt. Edzavier Reese found a job at GameStop in Atlanta, Ga., through the 'Hiring our Heroes' job fair.

Reese made the decision to return back home to Atlanta, Ga late last year. At first, he was going to take it slow, but once he got behind the wheel of his blue Mazda6, he decided to make the drive straight through, arriving at his mother’s house late afternoon.  A friend told him about a vets-only job fair at the Georgia Dome.  Reese wanted to take a nap, but said he knew he had to go.

"I went into the house, took a shower and shaved my head, and went over there," he said. 

When he got there, the fair was almost over.  As luck would have it, GameStop’s Mark Qualls noticed Reese. 

"I saw a guy coming through, great suit, shoulders back, walking straight, great presence -- he's got to come talk to me," said Qualls, a regional manager at the computer and video game retailer.  

After a brief conversation, Qualls saw in Reese what he says he sees in other returning veterans. "These days most of our veterans coming in have had some type of military service on the war front. So add to that high stress environment, a lot at stake -- quick decision making ability is really important -- and then lastly you have things like determination and honesty and honor and loyalty and that's not just words for them. They take an oath on that and they really believe it. So the better question is, ‘How can you not hire our veterans?’" 

Lisa Rosser, who is also a veteran, now runs a group called The Value of a Veteran, which helps organizations improve veteran recruitment. She says hiring veterans just makes good business sense.

"The military person has the skill sets you need,” she said.  Eighty-one percent of the jobs fit what you have in your organization, and the other skills that we bring are managerial and operational and training and leadership experience. What employer doesn't need those types of skills in their workplace?"

Reese was eventually offered a management trainee job at a GameStop in Atlanta. He says he is eager to get his own store soon. 

“I was pretty excited on the inside,” he said. “But like I said, you’ve got to maintain your cool, you have to.”  

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.

Sen. Jim Webb talks about the concern that the post 9/11 GI Bill program has been abused by some universities. 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

The Pentagon estimates 300,000 members of the U.S. military will retire this year alone. Kerry Sanders reports on one woman, Army captain Heatherann Bozeman, who'll leave the service behind to raise her daughter and begin her new life as a civilian.

But she's not without trepidation: "It's a fearful time in America," she said on TODAY Tuesday. "I see it on the news all the time...And I have to do a lot of self-talk to say, you know what, I'm employable. And I bring something to the table."

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.

Col. Jack Jacobs

When World War II ended, millions of Americans came home and went straight into college or work, thus spawning the biggest economic boom in American history.

Now, with an accelerated withdrawal in Afghanistan likely and the certainty of about $500 billion in military cuts over the next decade, many of our fellow citizens who serve in uniform will be looking for work.

Unfortunately, unemployment among recent veterans is consistently significantly higher than the national average. But it should not be so, and it actually doesn't have to be so.

A tottering economy is not friendly to those who are newly in the labor market, and economic weakness is one reason for veteran underemployment.

Also, while almost everybody else stayed home, a few patriots donned uniforms and went overseas, and in the interim these troops lost experience and, most significantly, seniority. Many volunteers left their jobs for military service with employers' guarantees that they could return, only to discover that, even though there is a law preventing discrimination against veterans, these were empty promises.

And there are further impediments, the result of unclear thinking at the national level. The Department of Defense feels that it is in the business of defending the country and is not an employment agency, and so it does a poor job of aiding veterans to find jobs. Counseling is spotty and in most cases inadequate, and there is no permanent, coordinated system to match troops with potential employers.

Ironically, in an attempt to raise awareness about troops who leave military service with post-traumatic stress (PTS), the Armed Services help perpetuate the notion that all veterans have psychological problems.

Although the nature of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq makes PTS more likely than in previous wars, the truth is that our young veterans are among the most skilled, educated and capable in our history.

There is no other job like military service that gives young people authority and responsibility at such an early age, and our veterans are often far better prepared for leadership than those who didn't serve. In what other experience are young people successful at achieving complex missions in difficult circumstances, while simultaneously being responsible for everything that happens, or fails to happen, to every person under their watch.

Roughly 13 million Americans served during the Second World War, and that was just those in uniform. Nearly everybody else supported American defense in many other ways, and every household played a part in winning the conflict.

During the last decade at war since the attacks of 9/11, about one percent of our people served in the armed forces.

More people were killed in New York City on 9/11 than were killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941, and yet you have to knock on 50 doors before you will find a household from which someone is serving in uniform.

There is a growing effort to redress the problem of underemployment among veterans, and properly so.

Through the NBC Universal Veterans Network, there are job fairs and other events to bring veterans into workplaces across the country, and financial institutions, prime government contractors and support groups like the Wall Street Warfighters are making a difference, too.

But others view the employment of veterans as a way to assuage guilt or as charity to underappreciated citizens, and this is a big mistake.

For those who have served, wearing the uniform has been an honor and a privilege, and they bring to the table a maturity and sense of mission unmatched anywhere else in society.

Col. Jack Jacobs was awarded the Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty” in the battle he describes above. Click here to read the complete Medal of Honor citation. He is the author of a memoir: “If Not Now, When? Duty and Sacrifice in America’s Time of Need.”

Read more from Col. Jack Jacobs here.

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.

The unemployment rate for veterans reached 12.1 percent last year, almost 30 percent higher than national average. Jon Soltz joins NewsNation’s Tamron Hall to talk about the Hiring our Heroes initiative, which has organized job fairs around the country and online to provide support.

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.