All,

This article may be a little old, but the testimony and message is
just as clear today as it was when it was given...

Title: REQUIREMENT THAT EMPLOYERS REHIRE RETURNING SERVICE MEMBERS ,
FDCH Congressional Testimony, Jul 24, 2003

REQUIREMENT THAT EMPLOYERS REHIRE RETURNING SERVICE MEMBERS


Statement of Mrs. Michelle Comeau-Dumond Persian Gulf War Veteran and
Military Spouse

Committee on House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Benefits

July 24, 2003

Good Morning Ladies and Gentleman,

My name is Michelle Comeau-Dumond. I am a disabled veteran from
Operation Desert Storm, a wife of a Maine National Guard member
currently serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and a mother to two
beautiful little girls. I am here before you today as a person who
has been on both sides of the uniform. I have seen the affects of
combat and the affects on military families torn apart by
deployments. I have watched hundreds of hours of TV concerning
various stories about the war on terrorism, but what I want you to
see today is the affects it is having in our own back yards of the
United States of America.

My story and family are not unique. My girls and I are but one of
some 200,000 Guard and Reserve families effected by this current
situation in the world, and not just in Iraq but Kuwait, Afghanistan,
Bosnia, Kosovo, and several other countries and locations where
Guardsman and Reservists are deployed, stateside and abroad. Much
like what happen to us happens to most military service members. They
get a call at any hour night and day, and are expected to respond.
The families rush around to wash cloths, pack bags, wives hold back
their own tears and wipe away those of their children`s. We do our
best to do our jobs, give`em a big hug & kiss and put our best face
foreword as we watch them roll down the road. We proudly send them
off to war, while dealing with emotions of anxiety, confusion,
uncertainty, and overall stress and concern about how our family will
survive.

Our family life style is now drastically changed without our loved
one and breadwinner, as I found out first hand the day I returned
home after the send off. . It was February, in northern Maine and we
had been hit with one the worst blizzards in many decades; Aroostook
County had been declared a disaster area. I arrived home to find 6
feet of snow in my driveway, and 10 feet on my garage roof. I could
not open the garage door to get any shovels out because the beams
were buckling. The snow blower would not start, and I couldn`t find
any one to immediately repair it. My girls and I dug out our door
with our hands to get into the house and I started to make phone
calls for help. We had not had a family support briefing yet so I did
not have the phone numbers needed to reach them and I could find no
other help!!! I managed to haul our suit case through the snow bank,
and drove the car into the bank in front of the drive way, hoping no
one would hit it.

The next day I got a path dug to the house, the temp had dropped to
45 deg. below zero. The day after that I was taken by ambulance to
the hospital with Pneumonia. I forced the doctor to release me from
the hospital after promising I would not shovel, as I had no one to
take care of the girls now.

It took me a week and a half to clear snow and had to pay people to
do work my spouse would normally have done. The snow blower was
easily fixed but cost me $50.00 when my spouse always fixes those
items. Now that the snow is removed it has revealed that the deck on
top of the garage needs to be repaired and the siding on the house
needs to be replaced. These are things my spouse would do for cost,
but now I have to pay someone to do them. These things cannot wait
for my husband to return, because winter is coming again and things
will only get worse, yet I have no help and not enough money to have
the work done.

In March, my spouse temporarily returned to his home unit in Bangor,
to train with their aircraft and fly them to their port of departure.
He made arrangements to stay at a local hotel in Bangor, a 4 hour
distance from our home. My husband was told his military credit card
could be used for the room, and to save all receipts for travel and
food for reimbursement. When he checked out of the room the card
would not work, we were forced to use our personal money to pay for
the room, food and travel. A cost of almost $1700.00 to the family
which put a huge financial burden on us...

As a result, I fell behind on monthly payments on every bill and ran
out of heating oil during the coldest winter in northern Maine
history. We had purchased a heating oil plan but this was the first
year we did not make it through the winter. I was forced to beg for
oil, when two months earlier I had perfect credit and had never
missed a payment. I knew the family support program was there to
help, but knew there were families even worse off than us, knew they
were very limited on the funds and staff available. After all, we
still had food, a roof and now heat, at least for now. But it wasn`t
long before I was forced to go to the church and ask for food. On two
occasions they assisted me with food for my children.

It seemed like every day something was breaking down; the driver`s
window in the truck, an oil leak in the car, the screen door was
falling off, the faucet in the sink has been replaced with a pair of
pliers. Just when I thought I could not take any more my grandfather
passed away. I had no way to get there. I had no money and no cloths
because I had lost 40 pounds from stress and was working on my third
bout of pneumonia. I had reached my breaking point. I picked up the
phone and asked our state family support coordinator, who is located
in Augusta, 6 hours away, for help. I told her I needed just enough
money to get there and back; a 500+ miles trip, plus meals on the
roads one way. Once there I could stay with family and borrow cloths.
The state family support coordinator asked if I had enough money to
get to Augusta. I had a gas card that was not quite maxed yet, and 6
hours later my girls and I were in her office where she gave me
$200.00 for travel and a new outfit to wear to the funeral. I never
thought I could be so happy to go to a funeral, but now I would be
able to say goodbye to my grandfather and my children`s great
grandfather.

We returned home thinking things were looking up to find out my
husband was loosing his job because of this little known clause in
the USERRA Law. This clause say`s you can leave your employer to
defend your country, leave your family to fend for themselves, and
there is no job protection if the employer has a company wide layoff.
Yes, you heard me correctly; when my husband returns home from Kuwait
he will be unemployed. How will he be able to seek employment in
Northern Maine while he is honorably defending his country and the
freedom of others in Iraq? The paper mill he works for is laying off
100+ employees, two of which are currently deployed; do you not think
the other 98+ will have a head start in filling all the available
jobs in the area where they live? If they wait till they return home,
what kind of luck will we have in selling a house in a community
where high unemployment exists? There must be a way to protect our
country`s protectors! I have a few ideas; Schooling for new trades,
job placement when at deployment station and Real Estate
opportunities for ones who are forced to relocate.

My stories seem comical now and perhaps they are small compared to
others, but in Maine alone we have felt the pains of the war on
terrorism. Many spouses and families have suffered. Many spouses left
behind have been fired, or quit their jobs because their employer
would not accommodate them with shorter hours to care for their
families special needs, or simply to manage the day to day matters of
home.

Why are the families of the Guard and Reserve fighting just as hard
at home to support their spouses and yet have no legal protections
themselves? There are spouses who can`t drive due to visual handicaps
and live in rural areas away from central commands and no way to help
them. They are left to the wolves, why do we not have special
provisions set aside for these special needs people when their spouse
is called away to serve our country. If provisions were set aside
they could arrange for extra help with there children and rides to
get grocery. I am not asking for tickets to Disney World, I am simply
asking for basic life provisions.

You`re probably thinking, but we pay your spouse for military
service. Yes, you do. But here is a fact I don`t know if you realize.
In my family alone we have lost $12,000.00 for one year`s time while
my spouse is serving. In a family that makes under $50,000.00 a year
that is a large reduction in our income. Families need protection as
well as soldiers. My children were chastised at school and teachers
singled them out, simply because their father went to war. My 8 year
old desperately needs counseling and the support group did try to
find us some in the area but to no avail. There are no qualified
civilians to deal with children and real war problems.

Guard and Reserve families need more family support during
deployments; they are the only ones that know what each other is
going through. Words can not say what family support coordinators and
Family support programs do for those left behind. But Maine has only
one coordinator that does the work of 10 people, 24/7 with very
little money, and assistance. Often times they rely on local
donations. Out reach to all the families is difficult too. The state
of Maine alone has 417 miles of interstate, and another 120 miles
north of that from north to south. With several guard and reserve
units activated overseas and abroad, some 1,000 citizen-soldiers from
Maine alone. We are a very rural state and our coordinator does her
best with what she is given. What must be done is to protect and
provide both our soldiers and their families support and protection
by federal law. Without that many other families will suffer and
struggle through many of the same problems that can be avoided.

Family Assistance centers have been set up during this mobilization.
It consists of a person on the other end of the phone to refer us to
outside sources. They do a fine job with what they have, but are not
established until war and are only equipped to refer. We need is
inside resources, trained professionals. They do not have the
training to deal with what we have been exposed to. We need
professional staff on hand like an active duty base would have. The
family program should be staffed like an Army Community Center with
counselors for both child and adult, financial counseling services,
job placement help, legal counseling and more.

The family program schedules dinners and informational meetings
through out the state at different times and locations. They try very
hard to reach us all. They also schedule events for the children and
adults so we may socialize and just be together. Being able to talk
to people who are in the same situations having the same feelings
make a huge difference for me emotionally and physically. The family
program would be able to reach more of us with more funding and
assistance. I live 1 1/2 hours away from the closest meeting and can
not always make it due to financial reasons, that one trip could mean
two weeks of gas in my car at home. I am the only one in this part of
our county so it would not make sense for them to change the meeting.
However, if they could help with gas I would be fine, and I know
other families are in the same position.

I stand before you as a proud spouse and American. I will continue to
stand behind my husband and my country. I appreciate the opportunity
to address you today and I ask you to stand also for the issues that
are affecting our military families.

Thank You

COPYRIGHT 2003 BY FDCH e-Media, Inc. WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S.A. NO
PORTION OF THIS TRANSCRIPTION MAY BE COPIED, SOLD OR RETRANSMITTED
WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN AUTHORITY OF FDCH e-Media, Inc.