.Iraq veteran from Kodak frustrated he can't get any help
Blankenship, a lifelong resident of Kodak and a graduate of Sevier County High, is having a difficult time. This week the electricity was shut off at the mobile home he shares with his wife and four young children. He can't get a loan sufficient to buy a house. The Veterans Administration has offered to loan him up to $36,000 for a home - a veteran's basic entitlement - but he knows that might not even buy the land.
He has stopped telephone service to save money. Blankenship has kept his Internet service because he taking college courses online to better himself (his e-mail address is dan.blankenship1@us.army.mil). His wife has found it makes more financial sense to say at home with the children than work and pay hundreds a week for child care.
Blankenship is frustrated to the point of tears.
"I don't ask for help a lot, but when I do need help, my country is saying, who cares? Who cares that I watched a buddy die in Iraq? Who cares that I fought for my country? I love my country, but the people in it can be so freakin' greedy. It's like they don't even care."
Blankenship is not alone in finding life back home difficult after a tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. Finding a job is harder for returning veterans than for civilians, according to a new study from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Nearly one in five veterans recently back from tours of duty are unemployed, and one in four earns less than $21,840 a year, the study shows.
The survey indicates employment rates and wages are lower for troops returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones than for civilians.
Blankenship will be redeployed to Iraq sometime this year, although he doesn't know when. He's an E-4 with the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
As a Guardsman serving full-time in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 he said he earned around $45,000 a year. That drops down to around $274 a month when he returns to part-time duty. He has a job at a Gatlinburg souvenir shop which doesn't pay a lot. His wife gave up her job to stay at home and raise the children - a 4-year-old and 2-year-old from her first marriage, and a 1-year-old and 3-month-old from their own marriage.
The family lives in a rented mobile home in Kodak. He praised his landlord for working with him on payments. But other people, he said, haven't been so helpful.
"I've offered everything I own to get a loan so we can pay our power bill," he said. "I offered the title to my car."
One thing that works against him is his credit history. He was late on some payments, although he says he is caught up. Those late payments hurt when he's trying to get a loan or financing. Banks and loan companies have turned him down.
"I'm trying to figure out why I fight for people who don't even care," he said.
In Iraq Blankenship provided security for VIPs and military brass. It could be dangerous work. Yet he has chosen to remain in the Guard - he re-enlisted in December - and looks forward to his next deployment.
"I love my country," he said. "But what I did in Iraq doesn't seem to matter to creditors. I don't think they care that I've been in the military. They don't resent it, they just don't care."
All he says he wants is to provide "for my babies," referring to his young children. He has no money to buy them the medicine they need, and now his home is without electrical power. A few local agencies have given some money, but he uses it up to pay for gas driving to different places to gather the information and materials agencies need before they will help him.
He doesn't like asking family and friends for money; he thinks his own desire to be a good citizen, pay his debts and defend his country should be enough to get what he needs from the usual sources instead of asking individuals for loans.
Blankenship says he isn't asking for special privileges just because he is in the military, but he says no one regards that service as proving he is trustworthy and deserving of a little assistance.
"It hurts when a person tries to fix his own credit and is willing to die for this country and gets rejected because he's been a little late on payments," he said. "I know many soldiers have gone through the same as me."
People in bill-paying and credit trouble should seek out a financial counselor immediately to help them, Kelvin Boston, host of the PBS show "Moneywise," told an audience of military personnel in Washington recently.
TMP
He has stopped telephone service to save money. Blankenship has kept his Internet service because he taking college courses online to better himself (his e-mail address is dan.blankenship1@us.army.mil). His wife has found it makes more financial sense to say at home with the children than work and pay hundreds a week for child care.
Blankenship is frustrated to the point of tears.
"I don't ask for help a lot, but when I do need help, my country is saying, who cares? Who cares that I watched a buddy die in Iraq? Who cares that I fought for my country? I love my country, but the people in it can be so freakin' greedy. It's like they don't even care."
Blankenship is not alone in finding life back home difficult after a tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. Finding a job is harder for returning veterans than for civilians, according to a new study from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Nearly one in five veterans recently back from tours of duty are unemployed, and one in four earns less than $21,840 a year, the study shows.
The survey indicates employment rates and wages are lower for troops returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones than for civilians.
Blankenship will be redeployed to Iraq sometime this year, although he doesn't know when. He's an E-4 with the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
As a Guardsman serving full-time in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 he said he earned around $45,000 a year. That drops down to around $274 a month when he returns to part-time duty. He has a job at a Gatlinburg souvenir shop which doesn't pay a lot. His wife gave up her job to stay at home and raise the children - a 4-year-old and 2-year-old from her first marriage, and a 1-year-old and 3-month-old from their own marriage.
The family lives in a rented mobile home in Kodak. He praised his landlord for working with him on payments. But other people, he said, haven't been so helpful.
"I've offered everything I own to get a loan so we can pay our power bill," he said. "I offered the title to my car."
One thing that works against him is his credit history. He was late on some payments, although he says he is caught up. Those late payments hurt when he's trying to get a loan or financing. Banks and loan companies have turned him down.
"I'm trying to figure out why I fight for people who don't even care," he said.
In Iraq Blankenship provided security for VIPs and military brass. It could be dangerous work. Yet he has chosen to remain in the Guard - he re-enlisted in December - and looks forward to his next deployment.
"I love my country," he said. "But what I did in Iraq doesn't seem to matter to creditors. I don't think they care that I've been in the military. They don't resent it, they just don't care."
All he says he wants is to provide "for my babies," referring to his young children. He has no money to buy them the medicine they need, and now his home is without electrical power. A few local agencies have given some money, but he uses it up to pay for gas driving to different places to gather the information and materials agencies need before they will help him.
He doesn't like asking family and friends for money; he thinks his own desire to be a good citizen, pay his debts and defend his country should be enough to get what he needs from the usual sources instead of asking individuals for loans.
Blankenship says he isn't asking for special privileges just because he is in the military, but he says no one regards that service as proving he is trustworthy and deserving of a little assistance.
"It hurts when a person tries to fix his own credit and is willing to die for this country and gets rejected because he's been a little late on payments," he said. "I know many soldiers have gone through the same as me."
People in bill-paying and credit trouble should seek out a financial counselor immediately to help them, Kelvin Boston, host of the PBS show "Moneywise," told an audience of military personnel in Washington recently.
TMP
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