[Danzig]

an excerpt from an article i just read:



National Guardsmen and National Reservists are in particular need, he said. When a Guard or Reservist gets activated, his employer is required only to keep his position open until his return — not to pay his salary while he is on active duty. As a result, most Guards and Reserve soldiers end up supporting families on their military income alone, which is usually less than half of what they earned in their civilian jobs.
"On average, they're making 50 percent or 60 percent of what they were making when they were deployed, and they leave the wife to deal with the issues, and they're on the edge because their bills remain the same," said Walsh. "So we get calls — I mean, we get calls for food, calls in the middle of winter when people's, you know, utilities were shut off."

According to RealtyTrac, a data research firm in California, that tracks foreclosure statistics, military families have filed for foreclosure at a much higher rate than civilian families since the start of the economic downturn. Their research shows that in the first four months of 2008, foreclosure filings for military families were up 217 percent; the national average was 59 percent