When Johnny comes
marching home — to no job

EDINBURGH, Ind. - The return of the Elkhart-based Indiana National Guard’s 1538th Transportation Company from Iraq this week was a joyous occasion. About 400 friends and family members lustily cheered and applauded the unit’s 182 citizen-soldiers as they marched in formation into a hangar at Stout Field in Indianapolis.

The gathering might have been even more boisterous were it not for the realization that these Guardsmen are coming home to face a new enemy — a swooning economy that has landed like a KO’d heavyweight on the canvas of their home towns.

The 1538th sustained no casualties during its almost 10 months in Iraq ferrying supplies and providing security for U.S. military convoys, perhaps in part by obeying its unofficial motto, “Drive it like you stole it.” But the same can’t be said for the jobs its members left behind.

Forty-six soldiers — fully 25 percent of the company — have no work awaiting them, including many whose jobs vanished while they were heeding their nation’s call.

“They pretty much said there’s nothing to come back to, better start looking for another job,” said Pfc. Jonathan Maher, 20, of the Elkhart County community of Bristol, recalling the letter he received from his employer, Keystone RV, shortly after Christmas.

With one foot in the military and one in the civilian world, National Guard and Reserve soldiers typically are more susceptible than members of the active duty services to economic downturns. While they serve, their civilian jobs are protected by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), but that is no help when layoffs occur, unless discrimination can be demonstrated.

That’s a point being driven home for many members of the 1538th. It draws most of its members from Elkhart County and other areas of northern Indiana that have some of the highest unemployment rates in the U.S. following the collapse of the RV industry and other key manufacturing sectors.

Elkhart-Goshen's unemployment rate was 17.5 percent in May, an increase of 11.4 percentage points from a year earlier. That's much larger than the national jobless rate of 9.5 percent in June, which is itself at a 26-year high.

Maher, who had saved enough money to buy a house after 2-½ years in Keystone’s receiving department, had to back out on a pending offer after learning he had been let go. Now he’s going to move back in with his mom and stepdad.

“They had told us when we left that we had nothing to worry about,” he said matter of factly. “I was shocked at first, but I just figured I’d go deal with it and figure something else out.”

Maher appears to be one of the lucky ones, having lined up a new job welding UMP dirt racecars for a South Bend company, thanks to the recommendation of a fellow mechanic he served with in Iraq.

But many others are expecting to hit the bricks as soon as they get home this weekend after demobilization at Camp Atterbury, a sprawling training camp about 40 miles south of Indianapolis.

Sgt. Russell See of Elkhart said he found out in April that his job as a welder at Valmont Industries had vanished, a development that was communicated via an e-mail from the human resources department.

“It kind of floored me at first,” said the 41-year-old See, who worked in a unit building steel light poles which the company eliminated. “You’re feeling comfortable and cushy with a steady paycheck from the government and suddenly you’ve got to look at how you’re going to keep your head above water.”

The resumés that See has dispatched in advance of his return have yielded no offers. He has some savings, some accrued leave and will be eligible for unemployment benefits. But with a new house purchased for $65,000 just days before he was laid off, he figures he has only eight months or so to either find a job or consider what is now almost unthinkable — signing up for a third tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“I’ll have to do something, but it really starts hitting you more the older you get,” he said of the stresses of a combat mission.

Returning soldiers interviewed by msnbc.com at Camp Atterbury said they were generally aware of the economic mayhem unfolding at home while serving in Iraq, but found it difficult to follow the story from afar.

Spec. Joseph Dilts of Fulton County commuted to a job as a plastics handler for Plastics Solutions Inc., in South Bend, before being laid off a month ago. The 37-year-old said he learned that his job was gone after receiving an urgent phone call from his wife telling him to call work. When he did, he found out that his entire section had been eliminated.

Dilts said he had become concerned when he saw televised reports in Iraq about the stock market’s steep decline and the horrific sales and earnings posted by the auto industry. Still, he said, it was shocking to hear about the layoff because it was difficult to piece together the story when he was only able to catch snatches of newscasts.

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