 When the dust finally settles after the longest-sustained combat operations in American history, I'm convinced that a cornerstone of the military lessons learned from this period will be the amazing advances made in military medicine. The numbers speak for themselves. In World War II, for every 100 combat injuries, 38 were fatal. By Vietnam, for every 100 combat injuries, 24 were fatal. Today in the desert and in Afghanistan, for every 100 combat injuries, only six are fatal. We're bringing home personnel alive that in any previous conflict would have come back home in flag-draped coffins. That's the great news. That's the historic news. But the challenge that comes with that is we are wrestling with a set of wounds that the nation and the world has never seen. If we're going to ensure that IEDs and PTSD and TBI don't become the age and orange of this generation, we've got to successfully reintegrate this cadre of wounded warriors back into American society. Expert after expert tells us that the key to that successful reintegration is, in a word, a job. The sense of self-reliance and independence and worth that comes with work is the key to successful reintegration of our wounded warriors. And despite a willingness to hire wounded warriors, they have an unemployment rate that has doubled the national average. If we're going to ask the private sector in a troubled economic environment to step forward, then the Department of the Navy is going to lead the way. It's our moral obligation to support our nation's heroes and to assist them in finding meaningful careers so that they may continue to serve our great nation. That's why the Department of the Navy is hosting the third annual Wounded Warrior Hiring Conference, October 29th and 30th. By bringing together government, military and industry leaders that are committed to hiring and supporting wounded warriors, we can provide them with the tools they need to transition to the next step in life and connect them with potential employers. Our members are highly skilled, well-trained professionals. They can become an asset to nearly any organization. These are the young people you want to entrust to your business, your company, your corporation, your firm, your store, your shareholders with for the next decade. I hope you'll join me later this month and meet these outstanding Americans. You won't regret it.