A coalition of companies that vowed in 2011 to hired 100,000 veterans within a decade has made its goal seven years early, announcing today that 117,439 former service members have since been provided jobs.

The group, calling itself the 100,000 Jobs Mission, has now promised to double its target to 200,000 veterans job by 2020, according to the announcement.

"We have been able to make a difference in the lives of so many of our nation's veterans, and those veterans bring tremendous skills and experience to the workplace," says Maureen Casey, director of military and veterans affairs at JPMorgan Chase, one of initial 11 companies to form the coalition. It has since grown to 131 companies.

Veterans particularly of the Iraq- and Afghanistan-war eras struggle to find work. While unemployment rates among all veterans have been tracking lower that the overall jobless percentage, younger veterans have remained mainly about 10 percent unemployment.

In addition to being part of the jobs initiative, JPMorgan says it will invest $1 million in higher education efforts for veterans, including grants to Florida State College at Jacksonville, University of South Florida, The University of Texas at Arlington and San Diego State University.

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — The federal government will fall well short of meeting veterans’ health care and benefits needs in the coming years, several leading veterans service organizations said this week, and tens of billions of dollars in additional spending will be needed to adequately address the issue.

The 28th annual “Independent Budget” — recommendations “by veterans for veterans” for funding and policy changes for fiscal 2015 and beyond — was released Tuesday by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans and American Veterans. The report calls for $72.9 billion in additional health, benefits, claims processing and infrastructure spending for the fiscal 2015 budget, which sets aside money in advance for future fiscal years.

The Department of Veterans Affairs receives funding for health care in advance to help plan and manage care. Advance appropriations can be revised before the start of the fiscal year in question, although that doesn’t always happen.

The groups called on Congress to add the rest of the VA funding to the advance appropriations process.

“The VA health-care system has been shielded from the severe negative consequences of political gridlock that ultimately led to a partial government shutdown last fall,” said Bill Lawson, national president of Paralyzed Veterans of America, in a statement. “It is time that the rest of the VA is afforded the same protection.”

The authors of the plan say one of the greatest concerns is the severely underfunded VA construction account, which upgrades rapidly aging facilities, making them safe for the millions of sick, wounded and injured veterans of all generations. From fiscal 2002 through fiscal 2014, the group’s annual budget proposals have recommended a total of $23.5 billion for VA construction, however, less than $13.5 billion has been appropriated by the federal government during that period.

“World-class health care requires first-class facilities, but through 13 years of war, VA construction accounts have only received 57 percent of what’s required, and we project VA will need to invest $31 billion over the next decade to close its major and minor construction gaps,” VFW National Commander William Thien said in the statement.

SOCHI, Russia -- The road to the Olympic Games has been rocky for the 360 or so residents of tiny Akhshtyr, an ancient village not far from Sochi.

It also has been long, rutted and piled with construction debris.

Once a paradise surrounded by woods, ravines and trout streams, Akhshtyr has acquired a gigantic limestone pit and daily truck trips that have covered the village with layers of limestone dust -- all part of the massive construction project that has transformed much of the Sochi area, for better and for worse. But what has people most upset are the police and security agents who have prevented them from making their usual 10-minute trip to a bus stop.

A few weeks ago, authorities erected a checkpoint prohibiting residents, either on foot or in vehicles, from getting to the road that lies a few hundred yards away. It is the main road linking the Olympic mountain cluster at Krasnaya Polyana with the Olympic village in Sochi.

That left one way out: a seven-mile winding road heaped in spots with construction waste and piles of gravel.

"They told us this measure is necessary to prevent possible sabotage along the main Olympic route," said Ilya Zamesin, a 35-year-old farmer and local activist. "A majority of the local population are elderly people and they aren't capable of walking seven miles to get staples -- food, medicine and water."

Many of the pre-Olympics headaches have eased in Sochi as frantic last-minute preparations were completed and some of the bugs that marred the run-up to the Games were fixed. The Olympic venues have mostly been getting high marks from athletes and spectators. Despite fears of terrorism, Russia's vaunted security apparatus so far seems to have things under control.

Still, the Olympics haven't warmed the hearts of everyone in this temperate corner of Russia.

In Sochi, where quiet streets are being patrolled by police and Cossacks in black woolen hats, locals complained that the promised hordes of tourists were relatively meager.

"We were told we will be dealing with thousands of foreigners; we even studied English for two weeks," complained Nodar Bagrandzh, a 50-year-old taxi driver. "Where are all these crowds? We sit for hours without work. Our local residents are hiding out somewhere, and the promised foreign visitors and fans never came."

When Joyce Wentzky married an Army veteran, she did not think the military would become a big part of her life.

She met Frank while he was home in Anderson on a pass during the Korean War, but he was discharged six months before they got married. And that was that, she thought.

Now, almost 60 years later, the two have come to rely on a community of veterans that stretches from West Virginia to Alabama.

“We didn’t think of it becoming a part of our lives, but when it did become a part of our lives, it became a necessary part of our lives because of friendship,” Joyce said.

That sense of community helps many military families, retired or active duty, get through separations and adjustments, said Sarah Sangster, who is married to Tech. Sgt. Michael Sangster, an Air Force recruiter in Anderson. It is one of the reasons she says if she had to do it all again, she would take the deployments and relocations without a second thought.

“We didn’t have a clue what we were getting into,” Sangster said.

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” she added

Families on active duty face the prospect of long separations — Michael Sangster spent seven months each in the Horn of Africa and Iraq — and adjustments to life together upon the service member’s return.

The Sangsters know they will be relocating every four years, Sarah said. They arrived in Anderson in September, after moving a toddler and two dogs across the country.

Sarah, 32, and Michael, 34, met in high school in Dooly County, Ga., Michael said.

They went separate ways in college, and Michael joined the Air Force in 2005. The two reconnected and, two weeks after they married seven years ago, they shipped out to Germany.

The three years they spent at Ramstein Air Base, where Michael was part of an aircraft maintenance squadron, were some of the Sangsters’ most enjoyable, Sarah said. Neither one of them had lived outside Georgia before they arrived in Germany.

Now they were able to travel to nearby countries, and their families were able to visit and travel with them. They were part of a large American military community based in Germany.

“We saw how small our little world was,” Sarah said.

Though Michael requested to stay in Germany, he and Sarah were sent to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona instead. Michael was deployed twice for seven months at a time, he said.

Michael left the first time less than six months after they arrived in Arizona, and Sarah did not know what to expect, she said. She didn’t know many people and took a retail job because she could not find work in her field.

She was responsible for keeping the bills paid and the yard looking presentable. When their backyard pool broke, she figured out how to get it fixed and showed Michael when he returned.

“In my opinion, the spouse at home has it harder than the one deployed,” Michael said.