These past few years, John Lovell of Woodstock has lived a very 21st century American arc: from making war to making sales calls.
For four years, the Cumming native had served in an elite Ranger unit that carried out special operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. When he left the service in 2005, he tried his hand at a few different things.
He worked in a coffee shop —- just to be around people. He was a martial arts instructor. He sold cars. "That was terrible," he said.
Lovell returned to the job market just as the economy was tipping into the deepest recession in decades.
"So I'm watching all these people searching for jobs. Smart people, well-qualified people, experienced people —- and there is nothing out there," Lovell said.
He was pursuing a finance degree at Georgia State, but he needed an income, too. As with so many others, networking was the key, he said. "I found somebody at church with an existing business. There wasn't a job there, so I made one."
As a salesman of fire suppression systems for restaurants, Lovell doesn't like "cold calling," but he does it when he has to, supplementing that with mailers and lists of potential clients.
"We are certainly not breaking any records, but we are in the black," he said. "So far, it's sustaining me and my wife. She works, and between us we have everything we want."
He plans to have his degree late this year and will use it managing a small business as well as in his family finances. And while he feels he has found his own footing, he fears for the nation.
"I really believe we are in uncharted waters," Lovell said. "I think there will be a day of reckoning. I think America will limp on as a shadow of itself."
His advice for others entering the job market: "Now is not a time for illusions of grandeur. Now is a time for survival. Get a sales job. Cut your expenses down."
Most economists predict the nation will hit double-digit unemployment —- and Georgia has gotten there first: The state Labor Department on Wednesday reported that joblessness in June reached 10.1 percent.
The economy is bad, it's unusual, but it's not unprecedented. The U.S. suffered double-digit unemployment only once since World War II. That was in 1982 —- the year John Lovell was born.
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