be affected by the shutdown. various numbers is what i m saying. they re also saying that nearly 50,000 have a department of veterans affairs disability rating and that is really got to frustrate a lot of folks if that s true. it is true. and there is a reason for that. in 2009 when i came back in 2009, i came home to an economy that was in shambles and i came home as an infantry sergeant with a lot of dignity but i lost that really quickly. i came home without a job or a degree and without a future. until i found a stable means of employment and became a union pipe fitter in southern illinois and it gave me pride and dignity back. and in 2009 to address the large unemployment rates for veterans and help with the with the suicide crisis, congress and the president at the time passed acts to improve and streamline veterans into the federal work force and we ve seen an increase
jason sedakis joining a long line of cast members leaving. he is famous for playing joe biden, howard dean, and, of course, wolf, who by the way tweeted, with sedakis leaving, who should play me next? got to watch, situation room, 5:00 eastern to hear wolf s thoughts. it is a miracle l that an infantry sergeant came home from vietnam alive, and he has started a program designed to help other vets. dr. sanjay gupta has his story in this week s human factor. reporter: it was 1968. infantry platoon sergeant irvin ramirez was on patrol in vietnam. as we were going out, going by the rice paddies in the delta, i hear mortar shells going off and machine guns going off. next thing i know i found myself falling face first into a rice paddy. that s it. two days later, i woke up in a saigon military hospital. they told me i was lucky.
that have been running some ads in key states around the country to oppose hagel s nomination. the nice to have you both with us today. thanks for having me. thanks, jenna. i would like to start with you if i could. you wrote a piece recently on hagel s pending nomination where you say his pending nomination triggered the release, and i m quoting here from attack chihuahuas from the republican party. among those you mentioned is senator john mccain. senator mccain served as you have. you have different background coming at this different ways. why don t you think mccain s criticisms about hagel aren t warranted? well, i honor former captain mccain, senator mccain, a very much, a war hero but he is wrong on this one. i m a former chief of infantry. i got to love chuck hagel. senator hagel about, former infantry sergeant, volunteered for duty with the 9th division. he will never leave the soldier behind.
you can t read senator hagel s account of his military service and not be impressed bit. as senator hagel explained a few years ago, quote, probably most fundamental for me, when we talk of going to war, we need to think it through carefully, not just for the political and the geopolitical and the diplomatic, and the economic consequences and those are important, but at least for me, he said, this old infantry sergeant thinks about when i was in vietnam in 1968, somebody needs to represent that perspective in our government as well. the people in washington make the policy but it s the little guys who come back in the body bags. senator hagel s background provides an invaluable perspective, not only with respect to the difficult decisions and recommendations that a secretary of defense must make, regardingi ing ing the use and the commitment of u.s. troops overseas, but also with