National Guardsman searches for post-deployment work

National Guardsman searches for post-deployment work
By Kyle Martin
Staff Writer
Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012
This is the statistical snapshot of Bret Tindall:
He’s young (28), a post-9/11 soldier (one month home from Afghanistan) and, like many other veterans from this decade’s wars, unemployed (13.1 percent).

Here’s what the numbers don’t show: Tindall has a 6-year-old daughter who just lost her two front teeth; he’s got a baby girl who’s a month or two from taking her first steps; his wife works long hours to put food on the table.

He has held a lot of jobs — welding together school buses, building furniture — but he was out of work before his deployment last year. He started his job search just before Christmas, but two interviews and a nervous habit of biting his fingernail is all he’s gained.

“It’s been a shock,” Tindall said. “There’s really not a whole lot out there.”
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