SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Lt. Col. Gary Masapollo is about to retire after 22 years as an Army reservist, and his wife is worried.

Before leaving for his yearlong assignment at Central Command at Tampa, Fla., he gave up his contracted job as a professor of military science at the University of Notre Dame so the Army ROTC battalion wouldn’t be short-handed. Now he doesn’t have a job waiting for him.

“That is his primary concern right now, and a source of stress for him,” Lori Masapollo told the House Veterans Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity at a field hearing Friday at Indiana University-South Bend.

“When you’re 45 years old, and it’s the first time you’ve been in that situation, he is very nervous. I think he faces a lot of the same stress situations that most veterans do. If you’ve spent most of your life in military service and you’re coming home to a job market like this, he’s worried,” Masapollo said.

She told subcommittee Chairwoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., and Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., that finding a job is just one of the challenges her Niles, Mich., family faces as her husband gets ready to return to civilian life in the next week or two.

Masapollo said the challenge is particularly difficult for a military person who is part of a smaller detachment because they have fewer resources available, although many who spoke at the field hearing face a lot of the same problems and concerns as Masapollo.

Masapollo said while her husband attempts to find a job, health care is a concern for her and their five children, who range in age from age 20 to 6. She sounded a theme repeatedly brought up by speakers that it is difficult to find doctors who accept the military’s health care, and patients frequently are forced to switch doctors.

The family also could use help in readjusting to his return.

“We do miss him very much when he’s gone,” she said. “But there’s a large period of readjustment to bring him back into the family, to make him feel like he’s contributing — and he has concerns there.”

If he can’t find a job, he may need to go back to school. But he doesn’t know if there is any education assistance available, she said.

Government officials speaking at a later panel said there are programs out there to help people transition back to civilian life. The challenge, they said, is getting the word out, especially to members of the reserves and National Guard units.

But Herseth Sandlin said that’s not a valid excuse.

“We are able to work through the Department of Defense to find these men and women and mobilize them, you should be able to find them to inform them of their benefits,” she said.

The testimony shows there are still too many gaps in programs, Donnelly said.

“We’re missing the process of connecting the dots,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is to make sure is our Guard and reservists receive the same kind of transition assistance that our active duty folks do. They served our country in every way, shape and form, and they deserve it.”

Posted 5/19/2008