The math is mean. Post-9/11 veterans lug a steep unemployment rate that's a point-plus taller than the civilian rate. Add to that the 34,000 troops who soon will return from Afghanistan. Bottom line: The existing bulge of ex-military job seekers threatens to further swell in a world where stripes carry no sway. 

How to crack that cold equation? Just a little face time, says unemployed veteran Ruty Rutenberg, who believes that simply standing eye-to-eye with a hiring manager allows former service members to naturally radiate the ocean of intangibles that can only be absorbed in combat. 

"That presence, that aura about military people is very tough to see online in a resume, where (HR executives) are only looking at lines of text," says Rutenberg, 29, who served as an Army medic in Iraq, riding in Black Hawk helicopters. He's been searching for his "mainstay" career for about a year. "Online, it's tough to tell a person's emotions, let alone a person's energy.

Ian Horn special for NBC News

"Online, it's tough to tell a person's emotions, let alone a person's energy," said Ruty Rutenberg, 29, who attended a job fair in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

"But when you get to be right in front of these people and interact with them, there is no trepidation for veterans in those moments. We've been in stressful situations that people can't fathom, that they've only seen in movies," Rutenberg said Tuesday at a job fair in Los Angeles sponsored by Got Your 6, an entertainment-industry-backed, national veterans campaign. NBCUniversal is a partner in that movement. 

On Wednesday, Hiring Our Heroes — a program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation that aims to get veterans back into the work force — is hosting a hiring fair at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City.

Click here for a list of upcoming Hiring Our Heroes job fairs.

Both events are part of the Got Your 6 "veteran hiring week." Such events, Rutenberg believes, are critical for companies with spots to fill and veterans with bills to pay: "One of the things the military ingrains in us is how to be present and confident in the moment, really in any moment." 

Still, owning that moment may require a touch of coaching, say some career counselors, who have spotted common, repeated flaws in the resumes and in interviewing skills of ex-service members.

Humility 'can be damning'
On paper, the mistakes typically involve the use of jargon: cumbersome acronyms, technical descriptions, and — to many civilians — the complicated system of military ranks. Is a "specialist" special? 

"They feel: 'I've earned this rank. I want to make it prominent on my resume.' But that's one of the biggest complaints we hear from employers. They don't understand what 'sergeant first class' means," says Shareem Kilkenny, co-owner of Veteran Career Counseling Services. She operates VCCS with her husband, Kester Kilkenny, an Army veteran who spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

"What I have to get them to understand is: How do I translate their ranks and skills into the skills that employers are looking for? It might be better, for example, if a resume reads: 'Worked under extremely stressful conditions,' or 'Worked in a deadline-driven environment' or 'Dealt with constant change.' ”

In addition to reading like a foreign language, militaryspeak may just get a veteran's resume tossed, warns Elizabeth Hruska, assistant director of career and internship services at the University of Minnesota. 

"This can be a barrier to a civilian employer who needs to quickly understand the basics of you and your qualifications — and (emphasize) quickly: Employers tell us they spend only 10 to 30 seconds on that initial resume once-over," Hruska says. 

While many veteran candidates may try to pitch themselves as the ultimate team players, some are prone to selling themselves short due to that group-first mindset, says Jason Dozier, veteran transition specialist with Hire Heroes USA, a nonprofit dedicated to creating job opportunities to veterans and their spouses through personalized employment training. 

"Military members are very team-oriented, and the word 'individual' can be a euphemism for those who fail to be a productive member of that team," Dozier said. "And so tasks and accomplishments are more likely to be framed as 'we' rather than as 'I.' Humility is a great virtue, but it can be damning if you're looking to be competitive in the job market."  

Related:

• Unemployment among post-9/11 vets still running heavy
• Home from war, troops face 'white knuckled' first month

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's chief of staff will leave that post Sunday, saying "my wife and I decided it was time to retire," but the Department of Veterans Affairs honcho exits amid the sound of Capitol Hill criticism. 

John Gingrich, a retired Army colonel who commanded a field artillery battalion during the Gulf War, told VA staffers in a note that after 37 years of combined military and federal service, he had discussed his "transition" with Shinseki earlier this year, as the Obama administration began its second term. During that conversation, Gingrich and Shinseki "agreed to ensure a smooth transition and to set the conditions for an interim chief of staff, which will be completed by March 31," he wrote. 

"Over the last four years, I have had the tremendous honor to serve the Nation's Veterans, their families, and survivors as VA's Chief of Staff," Gingrich wrote to VA employees. "I will always be grateful for the opportunity that the Secretary afforded me. After a long career in the Army, and after four years of balancing my dedication to the department with my other responsibilities, it is time for me to shift my focus."

Word of his departure comes six days after members of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America met with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough about the chronically long claims-benefits backlog, which is managed by VA. The leader of that veteran's group, Paul Rieckhoff, called on President Obama to find an immediate fix for the backlog, adding the time had come "to go above the VA" on the problem. 

'Lack of judgement'
Also last week, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, told NBC News "the president needs to take a personal interest" in the backlog. Miller, additionally, had called for Gingrich to resign in October after revelations surfaced detailing improper VA spending. Last fall, Miller condemned Gingrich’s approval of an $8 million budget for a pair of VA human resources conferences held in Florida during 2011. 

“Even though I deeply respect John Gingrich’s time in uniform and public service, the fact remains that his lack of judgment in approving a number of lavish VA events cost taxpayers more than $6 million and cast a lingering shadow over the department’s reputation," Miller said Tuesday in a statement.

"The task at hand for the department is finding a replacement who will avoid repeating Gingrich’s past mistakes," Miller said. "In addition to being a good steward of taxpayer dollars, Gingrich’s successor must be willing to have an honest conversation about the challenges VA faces and its ability to overcome those challenges — qualities that are absolutely essential for every VA leader to have.” 

Related

• DOD, VA sluggish helping returning veterans, study says
• Hunt for bogus war heroes uncovers thousands of hoaxers
• Obama urged to step in to fix VA backlog

Nearly half of the 2.2 million U.S. troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have struggled to readjust to American life in part because the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have been sluggish in helping those coming home in droves, according to a sweeping report released today.

After examining veteran suicides and unemployment as well as the military’s handling of sex assaults, women in uniform and same-sex family issues, the Institute of Medicine said returning service members deserve “timely and adequate care,” yet it cited cases in which the DOD and VA are using unproven diagnostic and therapy tools.

"The (federal) response has been slow and has not matched the magnitude of this population's requirements as many cope with a complex set of health, economic, and other challenges," said co-author Dr. George Rutherford. He chairs the IOM’s committee on the assessment of readjustment needs of military personnel, veterans, and their families. The IOM, an independent nonprofit, is the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. 

"The number of people affected, the influx of returning personnel as the conflicts wind down, and the potential long-term consequences of their service heighten the urgency of putting the appropriate knowledge and resources in place to make re-entry into post-deployment life as easy as possible,” added Rutherford, head of preventive medicine and public health at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

Another 34,000 U.S. service members will be flown home from Afghanistan during the next 12 months. The high suicide toll among veterans (22 per day) has drawn recent Congressional scrutiny as have the elevated veteran-unemployment rate and access limits to VA mental health care. Congress requested the IOM study. 

Among the recommendations within the 500-plus page report:

• DOD and VA must “boost efforts to reduce the stigma” associated with service members or veterans simply asking for help to deal with mental-health issues or with substance-abuse problems.
• The tool DOD uses to assess cognitive function following a head injury – Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) — carries “no clear scientific evidence” to show that it works. That’s key because more than 200,000 U.S. troops have sustained traumatic brain injuries since 2000 — most non-combat-related. On March 5, Congressional members sent a letter to the chiefs of DOD and VA seeking data to investigate a new theory linking TBIs with the military’s suicide crisis.
• One of the VA’s “first-line treatments for depression” — Acceptance and Commitment Therapy — similarly “lacks sufficient evidence” to show its efficacy.
• Research has found that curbing access to lethal weapons prevents suicides, however, “DOD policy prohibits restricting that individual's access to privately owned weapons” — even if a service member is known to be at risk for suicide.
• DOD and VA should link their databases so that the health records of all service members are available to track their medical conditions from the moment they enter the service through the day any future treatment is eventually rendered by a VA facility. 

"These (recommendations) are meant to be helpful, meant to be more of a roadmap of how to pursue” these issues, Rutherford said. “These are extraordinary challenges that the systems are facing and they’ve gone to extraordinary efforts to try and work with them.

'Demand is large'
“Yeah, it can all be streamlined. Yeah, (the available help) can be matched better to the demands. Yeah, you can improve this stuff. But they are trying like crazy to make it match the demand,” he added. “The demand is large, and it’s growing.”

Compared to past post-war generations, a higher percentage of returning Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans are using the VA for their health care — 56 percent of that population, according to the VA.

"This report provides VA a better understanding of the difficulties some Veterans face as they readjust to home, reconnect with family members, find employment and return to school," read an email from Josh Taylor, a VA spokesman. "Greater collaboration with the Department of Defense (DoD) in the areas of research, treatment and clinical outcomes will further enhance continuity of care as service members transition from active to veteran status."

Pentagon officials will examine the IOM’s suggestions, said Cynthia O. Smith, a DoD spokeswoman.

“DoD appreciates IOM's hard work and will thoughtfully consider the study's key findings and recommendations,” Smith wrote in an email. She added that the agency’s Deployment Health Clinical Center “will work collectively with the VA to provide a joint response to Congress no later than June 2013.” 

The IOM study reports that 44 percent of veterans have had "readjustment difficulties," 48 percent have dealt with "strains on family life," 49 percent have experienced post-traumatic stress, and 32 percent have felt "an occasional loss of interest in daily activities." Those figures were plucked from an earlier Pew Research Center survey. 

"I’m not surprised (by those numbers), talking to my other buddies that have gotten out. I’ve got several buddies that still can’t find jobs but, to be honest with you, I think it's a factor of (their) motivation" to hunt for work, said Ryan Kriesel, 24, an Army tank operator who served two tours in Iraq. He's now a student at the University of Minnesota. He described his own transition as "pretty smooth." 

When it comes to those younger veterans who report a flagging interest in daily life, Kriesel believes some of that may be due to the loss of the emotional rush that once came with combat. 

"Part of it is being back in the civilian world," he said. "There’s not as much adrenaline going on as when you were overseas, out on combat missions several times a day."

Related:

• Hunt for bogus war heroes uncovers thousands of hoaxers
• Obama urged to step in to fix VA backlog

During the past decade, some 4,000 men have been exposed while posing as combat warriors to fool women, scam federal benefits and reap undeserved praise. But the latest fake veteran to be uncloaked and convicted will carry an unofficial military rank to prison: “Captain Obvious.”

Pinellas Country Sheriff's Office

Danny Crane

Danny Crane, 32, earned that colorful moniker from the man — an actual wounded veteran — who used his two basement computers and a loose, national network of fellow amateur sleuths to unravel Crane’s lies and ultimately hand him to federal prosecutors. Crane, who lived in the Tampa area, was sentenced March 14 to one year and one day in federal prison.

“His uniform was all wrong. The discharge papers he posted online were wrong. His mannerisms were wrong. The only thing he had right were his tattoos. He was Captain Obvious,” said retired Army Staff Sgt. Fred Campbell, one of 10 veterans who operate a virtual detective agency called Guardian of Valor.

“For four months, I was eating, sleeping and crapping Danny Russell Crane. My wife was getting sick of hearing about it,” said Campbell, who lives in Tennessee and has paralysis on one side, sustained as a result of his military service. He is not paid for his online investigation work. “Most of these guys do it for the hero worship. They see the accolades veterans get. So they just wake up one morning and say, ‘Hey, I was a member of the Black Sheep Squadron!’”

Crane, who served less than three months in the Army — never in combat — conned the Department of Veterans Affairs out of $7,000 by claiming he was half blind, had once been shot in the back, suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and had 24 metal plates inserted in his face. In public, he routinely wore two Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal — none of them earned. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Kaiser said Crane concocted the persona of “the most decorated man in Florida.”

“But in our world, the Danny Crane case is not unusual,” said Mary Schantag, a Marine widow who lives in Missouri and operates the Fake Warriors Project. Since launching that veteran-vetting venture on a shoe-string budget in 1998, Schantag said her nonprofit group — along with partners at similar sites — has revealed more than 4,000 hoaxers who falsely claimed military service or battlefield glory. It’s unclear how many of those 4,000 frauds later were prosecuted. A VA spokesman said such cases are not tracked by the agency.

“We had 22 phonies in 1998. I can get 22 in 48 hours right now,” Schantag said. “It’s all day, every day.”

Courtesy Guardian of Valor

When Danny Crane appeared in public wearing Ray Ban sun glasses and a Class A Uniform, veteran-hoax hunters knew he was almost certainly a fake. That look is not military protocol. Crane was sentenced earlier this month to a year in federal prison.

Yet she complained that federal and state agencies often choose not to pursue charges against the bogus veterans, saying: “The lack of prosecution and substantial penalties drives us all crazy.”

'Out of sync'
The Supreme Court last June struck down the federal Stolen Valor Act, which prohibited people from falsely claiming they had been awarded a military honor. A majority of justices ruled that invented battlefield brags should be protected by the First Amendment right of free speech. The behavior becomes criminal fraud, however, if the mock vets obtain money or gifts from charities or from the government by using their ruse.

Like Campbell, Schantag is intimate enough with military protocol to be able to quickly spot imposters who may post their boasts on social sites like Facebook or who show up to speak at veterans’ ceremonies. For example, Crane simultaneously wore a Class A Uniform and Ray Ban sunglasses, which Schantag called “out of sync.”

Courtesy of Mary Schantag

Before his passing last year, Chuck Schantag, a Marine corporal wounded in Vietnam, spent more than a decade working with his wife to expose fake veterans.

And like Campbell, she uses Internet background searches and files Freedom of Information Requests with government agencies to corroborate a suspicious veteran’s claimed history. She also taps her personal connections with Navy SEALS, Army Special Forces, even military chaplains to double check her detective work.

“We make sure everything is square before we put these guys out there as frauds,” Campbell said. “We make sure they are 100 percent full of crap before we say anything negative toward them. We don’t do it to say, ‘Ha, Ha, I just took this guy down.’ We do it for the 18- and 19-year-olds who have lost every limb on their body but still go on.”

Last year, Schantag’s husband, Chuck, a Vietnam veteran wounded in 1968, passed away. Ferreting out military scammers had become one of his life’s passions. He was trying to sniff out an apparent new fraudster when he died. That case remains under scrutiny.

“He wanted history to be right,” said his widow. “He was a Marine through-and-through. For every lying Marine we found out there, that guy was messing up his Corps.”

Related:

• Obama urged to step in to fix VA backlog
• Booted and banned: Former US troops battle to come home
• New military medal for drone pilots under fire

The benefit-claims backlog that has ensnared nearly 600,000 younger veterans — many with war wounds — has reached a crisis point inside the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the hour has come for President Barack Obama to become personally involved in unclogging the quagmire, two of the nation's leading veterans advocates told NBC News Thursday. 

"It’s time to go above the VA. If you think of VA as a broken down car, it’s hard for us to know how to fix it if we can’t see under the hood. The president can see under the hood. And the president can send people in to fix it," said Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq War veteran and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which represents more than 200,000 people.

"When you have so many men and women that are waiting years to see their claims adjudicated, there is a problem and it's somewhere within VA. And the president needs to take a personal interest," said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. 

Rieckhoff contends that Obama must answer a key question: With the overall claims tally surpassing 900,000 cases earlier this year and with 34,000 troops soon returning from Afghanistan, should VA Secretary Eric Shinseki be replaced? 

In a meeting Wednesday with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Rieckhoff said he told Obama's top advisor: "We need to hear it from the president" as to whether Shinseki should remain atop the VA.

During a press briefing Wednesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "It is absolutely the president’s position that we need to aggressively address this problem, and he has made clear to Secretary Shinseki that he wants this addressed. He is getting weekly updates on the backlog."

Responded Rieckhoff: "We’re focused on ending the backlog. What we need from the president is a plan to end the backlog. If (Shinseki's removal) is a part of that plan, we’d love to hear about it. The easy thing to do is fire some people. But that won’t necessarily fix things.

"Yes, we need a cultural transformation (at the VA). We need new blood, new ideas," Rieckhoff added. "But three VA secretaries have been there and three VA secretaries have failed. That’s why we’re focused on the president. This is bigger than Shinseki."

IAVA file

"The backlog is the place where veterans end up feeling betrayed. When your claim is delayed 600 days, which is the case if you live in New York or L.A., you feel like your president and your country are letting you down," said IAVA's Paul Rieckhoff, photographed Thursday speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C.

VA official urged to step down
On Tuesday, Miller called for the resignation of Allison Hickey, the VA's under secretary of benefits. Miller is frustrated with Hickey, in part,  because she can not project where the backlog will stand in 12 months while she is simultaneously promising that no veterans will be waiting 125 days or more for their benefits by 2015. Miller said he fears that high-ranking VA officials have failed to reveal to Shinseki the real depth of the claims challenge and the scope of the financial hardships faced by hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans — many who are unable to work due to battle injuries.

Asked Thursday if he believes Shinseki should resign, Miller said: "I am not prepared to ask the same of the secretary. He has a strong desire to do what is right. My fear is his leadership (team) has not been transparent with him to the point that he knows the true picture that exists out there." 

This week, four other prominent veterans' groups — Student Veterans of America, The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans (DAV) all voiced support for Shinseki and for the work being done by the VA's Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), which has handled claims for millions of veterans. Those groups argue that the VA's plan to cut the backlog should be given a chance to work.

"DAV believes that VBA is on the right path, that they have set the right goals and that they have leadership committed to transforming and institutionalizing a new claims processing system to better serve veterans," DAV national legislative director Joe Violante testified Wednesday before a Senate panel examining veterans issues. 

During 2012, the VA paid $58.6 billion in benefits to 4.3 million veterans or their survivors, according to the VA. The agency reported Thursday that its total "claims inventory" stands at 859,396. The VA defines its "backlog" as claims that have been pending for more than 125 days — that number stands at 592,222, according to the VA. 

"Secretary Shinseki believes it is unacceptable that veterans are waiting too long to get the benefits they have earned," read a statement emailed by Josh Taylor, a VA spokesman. "That is why VA is implementing an aggressive plan that will solve this decades old problem for good and transform how VA processes claims for decades to come."

But according to Miller, one factor fueling the backlog is that VA claims handlers are not working as efficiently as they did before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 1997, the average VA field officer processed 138 claims a year while, in 2011, with three times as many overall employees, the average VA field officer processed 73 claims a year, Miller said. 

"I have confidence at this time that (Shinseki) has a desire to move in the right direction. He leads an organization of 300,000 people that delivers some of the best health care in the world as well as educational benefits," Miller said. "But this benefits backlog, unfortunately, is going to be a stain that will stay with VA for years to come."

Related:

• Epic waits, 'gaming' the books at some VA hospitals, testimony reveals
• As VA backlog grows, Congress, veterans grow weary of excuses
• Disability-compensation claims for veterans lag as 'VA backlog' worsens
• Home from war, troops face 'white knuckled' first month

Courtesy of Hector Barajas

Expelled to Mexico from the United States after serving in the American military, veterans Fabian Rebolledo (first from the left), Juan Jose Sotomayor (third from the left) and Hector Barajas fourth from the left) are waging a legal battle for medical benefits and, perhaps, a return home. Tony Lamson, (second from the left), is a missionary helping the veterans

Five ex-American service members are mashed into a two-bedroom apartment in the Mexican border town of Rosarito Beach — a place of last stand, a foreign exile they’ve dubbed the “support house for banished veterans.”

All five were deported from the United States after being convicted of unrelated crimes —  including nonviolent offenses — committed after serving their nation, both in war and peace. They’re using their cramped hub to push for veterans’ medical benefits and lobby for a Congressional hearing to examine their expulsions. Yet there’s an even more pressing matter: more ex-U.S. troops are headed their way following similar deportations.

“It’s just a matter of time before I get two or three more guys. We don’t have the room. I guess we’ll put up some tents outside,” said Hector Barajas, 36, leader of the house and an Army paratrooper from 1995 to 2001. He immigrated from Mexico with his family when he was a child, growing up in Compton, Calif. Soon after his service, he pleaded guilty to firing a gun into a vehicle. No one was hurt. He served two years. In 2004, he was deported to Mexico. 

“I paid my debt. When I enlisted, I swore to defend the Constitution and defend the United States against all foreign threats, Mexico as well. I was wiling to go to war with Mexico. I’m still willing to do that,” said Barajas, who, like the other members of the house, had green cards when they enlisted in the U.S. military. “I’ve got bad knees from being a paratrooper but I can’t access (Veterans Affairs) benefits.”

Numbers on deported veterans are, at best, guesswork. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not currently track what portion of the individuals removed from the United States are military veterans. At the California detention center where Barajas was held a decade ago, he counted 17 fellow veterans, which led him to roughly calculate that among 250 such centers across the country, there are perhaps more than 4,000 veterans set to be expelled at any given time after their criminal convictions.

“We don’t know how many,” said Craig Shagin, a lawyer in Harrisburg, Pa., now representing three veterans facing deportation and who has had 14 other veteran-clients booted out of the United States to Great Britain, Italy, Jamaica, Uruguay and other countries.  “You’d think if we were proud of this kind of thing, we’d be keeping the records.”

Since September 2001, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service has naturalized 74,977 members of the military, with 9,773 of those service members becoming citizens. They originally came from 27 countries including: Afghanistan, China  (Hong Kong), Cuba (Guantanamo), Iraq, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

The deportations of veterans may follow convictions of felonies such as homicides or sexual assaults, but, as Shagin said, “they don't have to be felonies at all. They often are misdemeanors or unclassified crimes. Of course, I don’t look at the crime. They were punished for the crimes, whatever they were. As veterans who served this country, they should not face deportation.

“But yes, minor, minor, crimes can lead to deportation,” Shagin added. “Under U.S. immigration law, there are certain offenses — most notably crimes of theft and crimes of violence — that become aggravated when the alien is sentenced for a year or more in prison. And that’s even if the sentence was suspended (or reduced).

“These polices are not liberal or conservative, not pro-immigration or anti-immigration, they’re just plain stupid. It’s awfully hard to live with this blatant stupidity,” Shagin said.

Said ICE spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs: "ICE carefully reviews any potential enforcement action involving a veteran. Prior to removing an alien with military service, agents must first receive authorization from senior leadership in a field office, following an evaluation by local counsel. ICE exercises prosecutorial discretion for members of the armed forces who have honorably served our country on a case-by-case basis when appropriate and (ICE) Director (John) Morton's June 2011 memo on prosecutorial discretion specifically identifies service in the U.S. military as a positive factor that should be considered when deciding whether prosecutorial discretion is appropriate.”

Courtesy of Hector Barajas

Hector Barajas when he served as a U.S. Army paratrooper.

One of Barajas’ housemates, Fabian Rebolledo, a former Army paratrooper who served eight months in Kosovo, was convicted on an insufficient funds charge after writing a $750 check. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison — triggering, he said, an automatic deportation — even though he served only eight months.

Rebolledo spent most of his life in California after coming to America with his family at age 13. He was deported in 2010.

“Ever since then, I’m here,” said Rebolledo, 37.  “We are expanding. We are telling everybody about our cause. Every single place we go here, we talk about this. When I joined the military, I was promised my citizenship. My recruiter lied to me.”

Groups pushing to halt illegal immigration and stiffen border security, like the nonprofit Federation for American Immigrant Reform (FAIR), insist that veterans like Rebolledo and Barajas all agreed to a sacred accord when they crossed into U.S. soil: obey the laws or return to their places of origin.

“When you come to the United States as a legal immigrant, the bargain is you are not going to get into trouble. It’s a conditional agreement. We allow you to come here and pursue life, liberty and happiness and, in return, we expect you’re not going to commit felonies,” said Ira Mehlman, the spokesman for FAIR. “They served in the military but that doesn’t exempt one from complying with the law."

“It’s a question of loyalty,” responded attorney Shagin. "Loyalty is a reciprocal concept — it goes both ways. You can’t say to somebody, 'You will be loyal to us' and then not give them a basic benefit of that loyalty. That does not mean they should get off for crimes that they committed. If you commit rape, murder, treason, you’re punished just like I would be. But if you served in the armed forces, you should not also lose the country that you served."

Courtesy IAVA

Former U.S. Marine Sergeant Derek Coy says he still struggles "both mentally and physically, with the toll it took on me and countless others do as well."

Derek Coy hails from Baytown, Texas, and could be a poster child for American veterans of the war in Iraq as they look back and ask: "Was it all worth it?" 

A former U.S. Marine sergeant based in the volatile Anbar province at the height of the conflict, Coy is proud of his service and believes the "invaluable tools" he gained as a Marine will ultimately help him succeed in life.

But seven years since he left Iraq, he’s fighting a different battle — against anxiety, depression and emotional numbness — the effects of post-traumatic stress. 

"I still struggle, both mentally and physically, with the toll it took on me and countless others do as well," he said.

Tuesday will mark 10 years since the "shock and awe" invasion and more than a year since the last company of U.S. troops left Iraq. But only about 4 in 10 Americans who fought there — according to a Pew Research Center poll — believe the reasons for going to war justified the loss in blood and treasure.

Almost 4,500 U.S. troops were killed and more than 32,000 wounded, including thousands with critical brain and spinal injuries.  Estimates of the number of Iraqi civilian fatalities are staggering, ranging from 100,000 to 600,000.

The monetary cost could exceed $3 trillion.

While the war in Iraq has ended, the sacrifice for vets continues back in a civilian world they often find "foreign" and isolating.

Ann Weeby, a native of Boyne City, Michigan, was deployed at the beginning of the war, attached to the 101st Airborne under then-Major General David Petraeus , in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.

"Our goal was to find weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein," she said.

"After WMDs were not found and Saddam was captured, I didn’t expect [such a] prolonged U.S. military presence in Iraq," she added.

As the only person her family and friends know who fought in the war, Weeby tries to educate them about the scourges of depression and suicide that U.S. vets face after Iraq. 

"American troops are suffering, and in some cases dying, because a Veterans Affairs' claims backlog is preventing them from getting [mental] health care. Twenty-two U.S. veterans commit suicide every day!" Weeby said, citing a troubling statistic recently published by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Courtesy IAVA

Ann Weeby, who was attached to the 101st Airborne, went in to look for WMDs and Saddam Hussein. "I didn't expect [such a] prolonged U.S. military presence in Iraq," she said.

'The cost was high'
When Leon Panetta, then secretary of defense, addressed U.S. troops in Baghdad before they pulled out of Iraq, he argued that their core mission had been accomplished.

"To be sure, the cost was high," he said. "But those lives were not lost in vain. They gave birth to an independent, free, and sovereign Iraq."

Today, however, Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, heads what looks more like an authoritarian regime, propped up by a coercive secret service.

Toby Dodge, an analyst at U.K.-based think tank Chatham House, claimed Iraq had morphed into a pro-Iran police state, where Sunni gunmen and al Qaeda’s suicide bombers seem to strike at will, killing hundreds each week. 

His conclusion: 10 years after regime change in Iraq, little has changed.

"The lives of ordinary Iraqis, in terms of the relationship to their state and their economy, are comparable to the situation they faced in the country before regime change," he said in a report written for Chatham House.

Many Iraq War veterans admit they were fighting more for their battle buddies than for any "island of democracy" in the Arab world.

Courtesy IAVA

Robert Contreras, who had two tours of duty in Iraq, returned to California to finish a college degree, where he has struggled to relate to other students. "The most common question I get … is if I've ever killed someone," he said.

Robert Contreras, from Sylmar, California, left the military after 10 years in the Navy, including two tours of duty in Iraq, and returned to California to finish a college degree.

"Personally, I was not there fighting for Iraq," he said when asked if the war was won or lost.

"I was there to protect those who served alongside me to the best of my abilities," he said.

He’s struggled to relate to his student peers who know little about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The most common question I get … is if I’ve ever killed someone," he said.

Contreras also developed symptoms of PTSD. "I was anxious in crowded places and unable to feel at ease anywhere but at home."

Veterans like Weeby and Coy have found a therapeutic way to generate positives from their Iraq War experiences — and better deal with some of the nagging uncertainties about Iraq’s future: They’ve reached out to their fellow vets.

Weeby is an outspoken advocate for San Francisco Bay Area veterans, while Coy is an associate at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, or IAVA, the first and largest non-profit group representing U.S. vets from those wars.

Both are currently in Washington, D.C., part of the "Storm the Hill" offensive, pressuring Congress to address key veterans’ issues, like 9.4 percent unemployment and a bottle-necked health-care program.

"Coming home with a renewed appreciation for my life and freedoms, I’ve committed my career to helping others," reflected Weeby.

U.S. military commanders would argue that the war in Iraq brought important changes there:  Iraqis are better off without Saddam Hussein and have at least gained a fledgling democracy and national elections.

But 10 years since “shock and awe” was supposed to clear the path for a liberated Iraq and a "forward strategy of freedom" that would sweep across the Middle East, Iraqis are instead falling victim to wave upon wave of sectarian violence.

And many of their American "liberators" are fighting for their own survival — back home.

Jim Maceda has covered Iraq since the 1980s.

Related:

Concern grows about military suicides spreading within families

The enemy within: Soldier suicides outpaced combat deaths in 2012

Full Iraq coverage from NBC News

Some veterans are waiting six months to see VA doctors to fix their broken dentures or artificial knees and at least two veterans died last year from diseases “due to delay in care” at their local VA hospitals, according congressional testimony delivered Thursday.

Meanwhile, staffers at several Veterans Affairs medical centers were found to have rigged computer records to make it appear as though there are little or no wait times for ex-service members when, in reality, backlogs for veterans needing exams and treatment can span six to eight weeks, additional testimony revealed.

“Delayed care is denied care,” said Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., during a House oversight hearing held to investigate why most veterans must wait 50 days on average to schedule initial exams with VA doctors. Kirkpatrick spoke of one Iraq veteran in her district who required more than six months to book his initial consultation with a VA mental health provider.

“Veterans should not have yet another hoop to jump though. Access to health care should be easy to schedule,” Kirkpatrick said.

With the Department of Veterans Affairs already nine months behind in meeting disability claims, the fresh anecdotal evidence of long veteran-patient waits prompted Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., to chastise the VA Deputy Under Secretary William Schoenhard: “You’ve been here, in this position since 2009. You came in (and) the system was in chaos and not serving the veterans community. You’ve been there. You haven’t made a difference. And I have no reason to think that under your leadership, unfortunately, this job is going to get done.”

Coffman also waved a handful of VA records documenting the deaths in May of 2012 of two veterans, one in Georgia and one in South Carolina — both of whom were ill and awaiting consultations with VA doctors. “So by your own internal documents there are issues concerning the quality of care related to timeliness and, unfortunately, the loss of life unnecessarily of veterans. That’s particularly alarming,” Coffman said.

Earlier in the hearing, Schoenhard expressed his regret over any reported “breakdown in care,” adding that “any veteran who goes without timely care is one veteran too many in terms of our commitment to serve those who served us.” He testified that the VA is working to tighten its appointment system by better meshing its administrative and clinical functions and ensuring “more robust training of our staff who schedule these patients.”

But equally troubling to members of the House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee: reports of VA employees who — as Coffman described — “game the numbers” to deceptively make VA patient-wait times appear shorter. The Government Accountability Office discovered such altered computer records during recent inspections at four VA medical centers, a GAO official testified Thursday.

“Some staff told us they changed medical-appointment desired dates so that the wait times aligned with VA’s related performance goals ... We heard this across several facilities,” testified Debra A. Draper, director of health care at the GAO.

Draper testified that at one primary VA clinic, GAO investigators learned that a scheduler had changed dates (in a computer) “to show there were no long wait times. At another specialty care clinic, we heard providers were changing (appointment) dates to make sure their data showed they were within the (desired) 14-day timeline of the VA. We also went to one specialty clinic (where) it showed a zero-day wait time (when) ... in reality there was a six-to-eight week backlog, at least.”  

Asked by Kirkpatrick whether those VA schedulers “were unduly influenced” by VA brass to purposely tweak the appointment records, Draper replied: “We weren’t specifically told they were directed by management. The current (software) situation provides ample opportunity to change dates, whether intentional or not, to reflect the results you want to achieve.

“(However), these measures are included in VA’s budget submissions and in VA’s annual performance and accountability report,” Draper added. “So there’s a lot of incentive around these measures.”

Related: 

• As VA backlog grows, Congress, veterans grow weary of excuses
• Disability-compensation claims for veterans lag as 'VA backlog' worsens
• Home from war, troops face 'white knuckled' first month

Traumatic brain injuries sustained by more than 200,000 U.S. troops may be fueling the military’s suicide crisis, according to a letter co-signed by 53 congressional members who are seeking additional data to investigate the new theory.

In the letter, sent Tuesday to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, the lawmakers urged both agencies to provide Congress with a raft of figures, including the number of Iraq and Afghanistan service members and veterans who committed suicide or tried to end their lives after being brain injured by the detonation of an improvised explosive device — “the weapon of choice” in both wars.

“Evidence has suggested that blast injuries, including but not limited to those causing damage to vision or hearing, can have a severe psychological impact ... that can play a major contributing role in suicides,” read the bi-partisan letter.

Between November 2011 and October 2012, there were more than 15,000 IED attacks against U.S. service members in Afghanistan, and 58 percent of all coalition casualties during that span were caused by the hidden bombs, the letter states.

At least three veterans groups, including the Blinded Veterans Association, are backing the congressional push to — as the letter to DOD and VA states — “get a better understanding of the connection between blast injuries and suicide.”

“I’ve talked to a lot of neurologists, military neurosurgeons and trauma surgeons who have all started to ponder if the IEDs that have caused the TBIs are the real cause of the suicides, versus the traditional approach that suicides are all caused by the psychological stresses of combat,” said Thomas Zampieri, head of government relations for the Blinded Veterans Association.

“Let’s collect more information and maybe the epidemiologists will find a way to unlock some of this mystery: Are military suicides actually more related to the brain injuries? I think there may be a big connection,” added Zampieri, who served as a Vietnam-era Army medic. “As the numbers of TBIs go up, the numbers of suicides continue to go up.”

The portion of U.S. service members who sustained TBIs increased each year from 2001 to 2011 — with a total of 266,810 brain injuries diagnosed in American troops between 2000 and 2012, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, part of the DOD. More than 80 percent of those injuries were not deployment-related cases, with many occurring amid crashes of privately owned cars and military vehicles. 

Army soldiers account for the vast majority of diagnosed TBI cases, and those injuries range from “mild” (a concussion) to “severe.” Within the Army, the suicide rate among active-duty members has risen from 9 per 100,000 in 2001 to nearly 23 per 100,000 in 2011, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

During that same span, according to the DOD’s brain injury center, the number of annual TBI diagnoses among American troops has ballooned from 11,580 in 2001 to 32,609 in 2011 — an increase of 182 percent.

“What is significant is that we are looking at a potential paradigm shift of significant proportion if the link between low-level TBI from IEDs emerges,” said retired Army Col. Bob Morris, founder of the Global Campaign against IEDs.

“The current automatic approach is to connect everything to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and look at it all as psychological when it may be a physiological,” Morris added. 

The lawmakers additionally asked the DOD and VA to supply "specific autopsy findings (of service members or veterans) potentially indicative of prior TBI." The members said they want to know whether such post-mortems found "chronic traumatic encephalopathy", which has been detected in the brains of a number of NFL players who recently committed suicide. 

Numerous Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been diagnosed with both TBIs and PTSD, as well as with hearing loss — the most common disability among the men and women who served in those wars. 

"There is no higher priority for VA than the mental health and well-being of our courageous men and women who have served the nation," said a VA spokesman, responding to the congressional letter. "Under the leadership of Secretary Shinseki, VA has made significant progress in providing increased access to mental health care services and strengthening our suicide prevention efforts, but there is more work to do. VA is committed to providing all Veterans the care and benefits they have earned and deserve.”

A Pentagon spokeswoman said Hagel "responds directly to correspondence received" and that it would inappropriate for her comment on the letter. 

Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., a surgeon who worked at a VA medical center for 20 years, led the effort to collect congressional signatures for the letter to Hagel and Shinseki.

“Far too many of our veterans and military personnel have taken their own life after bravely serving our nation. Frankly, it’s tragic and unacceptable,” Benishek said in a statement Tuesday. “I am hopeful that by working together we can make sure our guys and gals in the military and the VA have the support they need to recover from the damaging psychological effects of war.”

"There is particular evidence linking suicide to those wounded by IEDs," added Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y. "It is my hope that through additional research we will be able to identify and reverse this painful trend. One suicide is too many and we should do all we can to address this as quickly as possible."

Related:

• Why modern soldiers are more susceptible to suicide
• Home from war, troops face 'white-knuckled' first month
• Soldier Hard's hip-hop lyrics reveal PTSD's rough edges

Damir Sagolj / Reuters

A U.S. Marine drinks the blood of a cobra during a jungle survival exercise with the Thai Navy as part of the "Cobra Gold 2013" joint military exercise, at a military base in Chon Buri province, Thailand.

These beastly feasts exist somewhere between the hard edge of gunpoint diplomacy and the soft belly of “Man v. Food.”

In Thailand, some Americans recently munched jungle grubs and guzzled snake blood alongside Thai military members. In Afghanistan, 13 U.S. men were invited by locals to slice the throats of goats, and they later reciprocated by offering steaming bowls of their own exotic fare: Ramen noodles.

The common denominator: The U.S. Marine Corps.

“We’re bred from the beginning to do what it takes to become one with the local populace and win over their trust,” said former Marine Sgt. Thomas Brennan.

In 2010, while serving with a dozen other Marines and seven Afghan National Police members in the Musa Qala district, town members politely asked one of Brennan’s men to kill a goat — part of a sacred custom on a Muslim holiday. The Marine complied, spilling fresh blood on the street as nearby Afghani men chanted Muslim prayers. Later, the entire group shared cooked goat meat inside a small dwelling.

“We were more than willing to be part of their culture because we had that team mentality that we needed to develop” with the Afghan National Police, Brennan said. “From there on out, we shared more dinners with them.”

The same ethic led a group of Marines late last month to kill king cobras and drink the snakes’ blood in a Thai jungle as members of the Royal Thai Marines cheered. The event was part of an annual joint training exercise called Cobra Gold that teaches jungle-survival skills and other field exercises. 

Units from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps — numbering about 9,500 service members — participated along with troops from Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, said First Lt. Gregory H. Carroll, a Marine Corps spokesman.

“The jungle provides a number of animals and some are common to us like birds, fish and even some reptiles,” U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel A. Hernandez told dvidshub.net, a website that provides military-oriented content. “However, if you’re not a good hunter, there are smaller prey you can eat like insects, such as grasshoppers, cockroaches, scorpions, larva, worms and beetles.”

In Afghanistan, the goat butchering came after the Marines had given some rice and bread to the town members as part of the Muslim holiday.

“The Afghan National Police saw that we were caring about the locals when it came to the holiday and they invited us to their celebration. For the (police) commander and his higher echelon, it meant a lot and they were more willing to incorporate with us and share their culture,” Brennan said.

But Marine food swaps can work both ways.

Brennan’s unit offered the Afghan National Police members a few of the morsels that their families had sent from America: cans of Chef Boyardee pasta.

The post-taste reaction among the Afghanistan locals may have mirrored the faces of the Marines who recently sipped snake blood in Thailand.

“They thought,” Brennan said, “it was the grossest stuff in the world.”

Related: 

• Female Marines shoot rifles, swim in uniform at boot camp
• Medal for cyber troops draws jibes, dismay, 'Whiskey Tango Foxtrots'

The armed forces mourned a grim toll in 2012 when more troops took their own lives than died in combat, but a precarious question remains: Why is the rate spiking when military life has long been a suicidal deterrent?

Among the services, the Army lost the most active-duty members last year to suicide: 182. Inside that branch, as two wars raged then waned, the annual suicide pace climbed. During 2001, nine out of every 100,000 active-duty soldiers killed themselves, while, during 2011, the suicide rate was nearly 23 per 100,000, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Compare that sobering trend to conflicts and peacetimes past. During the final three years of World War II, the Army’s annual suicide rate didn’t budge above 10 soldiers per 100,000, and during the Korean War in the early 1950s, that annual pace remained at about 11 soldiers per 100,000, according to a study published in 1985 by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Between 1975 and 1986, the Army’s annual suicide rate averaged 13 deaths per 100,000 soldiers, falling to as low as 10 in the early ‘80s, according to series of papers published in the journal Military Medicine. The Army’s suicide rate in 2001 was less than half that for all American males (18.2 per 100,000). Since then, the pace of self harm among active Army troops has more than doubled — and that trend is not ebbing: In January, the Army classified another 33 deaths as "potential suicides" among active-duty, National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers, according to the Department of Defense.

“A once-protective environment has moved to be something very different,” said David Rudd, co-founder and scientific director of the National Center for Veteran Studies based at the University of Utah.

“We need to look at the big picture to really understand what's going on today, but we all too often lose historical perspective,” said Rudd, who testified before Congress on the issue last month. The Army’s suicide pace between 1975 and 1985 should be viewed as the branch’s “baseline” rate, he added.

What has led modern soldiers to become twice as susceptible to suicide?

'The self-esteem generation'
Some answers lie in present military lifestyles and in the multiple deployments of soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan — but also in stark psychological distinctions between today’s 20-somethings and the mindsets of past generations, according to Rudd and to veterans of recent and past U.S. combat actions.

“The fact is, nobody really understands what it means to be at a wartime, operational tempo for more than a decade,” Rudd said. “What that means for soldiers is: When they come home from those deployments, they’re never really off duty.

“They get block leave for a month or so when they get back (from war) and then they’re right back in the field, training. Even at home, you’re away from your family. That level of disconnection is a big deal,” Rudd added.

And at military garrisons on home soil, some service members stay and sleep in private quarters versus the packed barracks of long ago. Rudd said he was surprised to see such a setup earlier this year when he visited the 29 Palms Marine base in Southern California. 

“They had their own TVs, no common areas. Entitlement has grown in younger generations and society has embraced that, giving in to the entitlement,” Rudd said. The military has “made decisions in accommodating these kinds of requests for more privacy and more seclusion by isolating (soldiers) even further.

“This group is the self-esteem generation. My worry is they have not dealt with enough challenges, enough disappointments in life for many of them to build the kind of resilience that is foundational when you go to war,” added Rudd. “This has led to many of us to having thin skin. That doesn’t bode well when you go to war.”

But suicide is not solely a military phenomenon, said Cynthia O. Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense, who described suicide as “a national public health problem” and the 10th leading cause of death for all Americans.

The Pentagon has, however, rolled out numerous anti-suicide strategies during the past three years, including a 35-percent boost in the number of behavioral, health-care providers who work in primary-care clinics or who are embedded with front-line units, Smith said.

“Suicide prevention is first and foremost a leadership responsibility. Leaders throughout the chain of command must actively promote a constructive command climate that fosters cohesion and encourages individuals to reach out for help when needed,” Smith said. “Seeking help is a sign of strength.”

They went through 'harder times'
But such collective emotional strength may be lacking in today’s warriors when compared to past generations who were perhaps better steeled for battle by the epic financial hardships they faced at home, said Barry Hull, a retired Navy commander and former F/A-18 Hornet pilot who flew missions in the first Gulf War. 

“Stress is all about coping skills. World War II was just as difficult as war today. But think about what the World War II (soldiers) had just come through: The Depression. What creates our coping skills? Trauma, difficulty, adversity,” Hull said. “I’m not stereotyping individuals. I’m stereotyping populations. I’m not saying youngsters today are any less – don’t misunderstand me. But our lives tend to be a little bit less adverse. We typically do not develop the coping skills that some of the older generations did. 

“So you take a young, patriotic guy. He goes over (to Afghanistan or Iraq) and sees things he can’t even comprehend. And so what does it do? He tends to feel the effects of that stress more fully because he has not developed the coping skills that the older generation has developed,” Hull added.

One Iraq veteran who can speak intimately on the suicide epidemic is Andrew O’Brien, who was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and who knew a 19-year-old soldier — with a wife and child back home — who died in an explosion. That 2009 family tragedy left O’Brien asking: “Why couldn’t it have been me?” In 2010, after returning to his Army base in Hawaii, O’Brien tried to kill himself by swallowing several bottles of pills, including sleep medication and anti-depressants. He awoke in a hospital the next day.

“That older generation, they went through harder times, the Depression, and they had so many worse things going for them. I feel like it made them more prepared,” said O’Brien, who has written an anti-suicide guide and who is scheduled to speak this weekend in New Orleans about his experiences.

But among older and younger veterans, there is one common thread that perhaps leaves both groups vulnerable to post-war struggles, O’Brien said. It is a basic tenet of Army teaching and military character.

“We are trained to be selfless. Being selfless is good when you’re deployed. You’re constantly making sure you’ve got your buddy’s back," O’Brien said. "But when you come back, it’s not good. And you have to live for the rest of your life with survivor guilt, with the fact that we lost that person.”

Related:

• Army withholding findings from Madigan PTSD probe
• Home from war, troops face 'white-knuckled' first month
• Soldier Hard's hip-hop lyrics reveal PTSD's rough edges