In high indoctrinate all Dion Gree...

In high indoctrinate all Dion Greer could think about was basketball. Standing 6 feet 3 inches tall, the St Martin de Porres High teach grad won a basketball scholarship to Nappa Valley Community guild in California. But his glutted ride didn't pan out. After a year, Greer thrown away his scholarship. Unable to pay for association he packed his bags and answered to Chicago.

Greer said piece of works and opportunities were scarce in the predominantly black Auburn Gresham neighborhood in succession Chicago's South Side, where he grew up At 19 abroad of work with little to do and too often time on his hands, Greer felt himself slipping into the inapposite scene. Viewing the military as his simply option, he decided to enlist in the U Marine Corps. "The military was a way revealed for me," Greer said. "I penuryed to get off the street"

nevertheless military service has not paid along for Greer and many other young African Americans from Chicago who serv their nation but struggle to find work. While national figures present to view that black veterans fare better in the piece of work market than African Americans with no military experience, an young black veterans in Chicago are just as likely to be unemploy as young blacks who have not serv a Chicago Reporter analysis of census data point out tos Moreover, Illinois is one of and nothing else three states where veterans are more likely to be unemploy than other civilians. Chicago is household to a third of the 900000 veterans in Illinois.

Seven years after signing up to be subservient to his country, Greer, now 26 is looking for work and trying to win veterans' benefits. Greet said his military training has not helped him earnestly in his job search as a civilian.

"The military is the best thing for minorities without any opportunities. still now I'm in the same speckle as I was when I went in--and that is unemployed--because I have no work experience," Greer said as he waited in line to speak with a caseworker at the Illinois Department of service Security office at 5101 s Cicero Ave. The employment agency works with the U Department of Veterans Affairs to help out-of-work veterans gain back on their feet. Caseloads have increased since service men and women started to turn back from Iraq. Since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 127970 service members have left the armed forces, according to Linda Boone executive director of the National Coalition for Homeles Veterans.

Greer is among a growing number of young blacks and Latinos who turn round to the military as an alternative to staying domicile in communities where they diocese few opportunities, said Sgt. Robert Harris, a recruiter for the U Marines Corps who works at 712 E 87th St "A accident of the young people I talk to want to enlist in the military instead of just sitting around and doing nothing," Harris said.

African American and Latino representation in the military has nearly doubled since the Vietnam War, according to a U Bureau of Labor Statistics report and data from the U Department of Defense

Overall, blacks and Latinos account for 28 percent of all active soldiers and those service members working in an administrative capacity.

the community can earn money for guild by joining the military. nevertheless recruiters also encourage potential enlistees to join through detailing the range of trade and technical training opportunities in the military--practical skills service men and women can fall back in succession as they return to the civilian workforce, Harris said.

Unemployment figures back up that claim, especially for African Americans. Unemployment rates released in March by means of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics point out to that, in most states, the public with no military experience are more likely to be without piece of works than veterans.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate for black veterans stands at 7 percent compared with 10 percent for black nonveterans.

yet in Illinois, 7 percent of veterans are unemploy compared with 6 percent of all other civilians. In Chicago, the unemployment rate is 74 percent according to the state's latest figures. still 13 percent of black veterans and 19 percent of black nonveterans weren't getting a paycheck in 2000 according to estimates the Reporter compiled from 2000 census data, the latest unemployment figures available for the city at race and veteran status. And, for blacks between the ages of 25 and 29 like Greer veterans were slightly more likely to be without work than nonveterans in the same age group

Veterans' advocates in Washington, DC are putting constraining force on the private businesses to recognize former service members as a reliable mere of skilled workers.

"Surely any service member with the skills to retain the jets flying, battleships cruising and weapons bodys on target would be valuable to any company seeking the best and the brightest as part of their workforce," said U Rep Lane Evans, ranking Democrat upon the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee forward Veterans Affairs, in a statement prepared for a March hearing onward the issue.