Secretary Hall, who recently visited reservists on duty in Kuwait, says he hears what the companies are saying, but his priority is the troops, and their job security. He expects the USERRA law to be enforced, which is why he made this astonishing offer.

"Let me make this commitment right on the air, if I could just for a moment. If there's any guardsman or reservist or family member that has a problem, call my office. Call me personally," he told Stahl. "My number is 703-697-6631. And I will ensure that I put a case worker on it. If necessary, I will call the head of the company or the agency personally. I don't just make that offer just precipitously. I mean that because we're concerned about it. My office will react, and I invite people, if they have a problem, tell me."
Other then the "scolding" given to violators, the worst case I know of, personally, was "resolved" by the SM getting his job back. Period. And once he got it back, his employer made his work life a living hell. Which the employer had every legal right to do.

Frankly, the one case I tried to pursue under USERRA was dropped because I managed to get another job. In order to keep pursuing the case, I would have to be the kind of complete loser who sat on my butt at home and waited for the Guard/Reserve guys to get my job back. If you get another job, you haven't been damaged.

USERRA is a bad joke. And no amount of fine-tuning will ever change that.

I have a special hard-on for the homeless vets, thing. Every war since at least WWII has resulted in the reporting of homelessness, unemployment, shiftlessness, mental disease, murder and mayhem, all being committed by vets, and every time a few years have passed, valid statistical data has been produced that exposed these things as myth.

Most vets coming back from this particular war are coming back with decent money, (which they tend to blow) and pretty much the same challenges as non-vets.