A record 16 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were elected to Congress on Tuesday night and two more veterans remained locked in races Wednesday that were too close to call.

The winners included nine first-time officeholders and seven incumbents.
All but two of the victorious veterans seeking U.S. House and U.S. Senate seats represent the Republican Party. They included Brad Wenstrup, who deployed to Iraq in 2005 as a combat surgeon. Wenstrup will represent Ohio’s 2nd congressional district which sits east of Cincinnati.

For the Democrats, Tammy Duckworth captured Illinois’ 8th congressional district, which spans Chicago’s northern suburbs. Duckworth, who served as a captain in the Army National Guard, lost both of her legs and partial use of her right arm when her helicopter was shot down over Iraq in 2004. She becomes the first female veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan to serve in Congress.

“It’s a very powerful moment. She also became the first severely wounded veteran to be elected,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and chief executive officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan group representing veterans of those two wars. “We are looking to her to really reach beyond politics and lead us all forward. She can be our generation’s John McCain or Max Cleland.”

McCain, an Arizona senator and the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee, was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967, breaking both arms and a leg and becoming a prisoner of war. Cleland, a former Democrat senator from Georgia, earned the Silver Star and Bronze Star during the Vietnam War, losing both legs above the knee and his right forearm to a grenade explosion.

The 16 veteran victories — the largest single wave of former service members heading to Congress since the 1980s, according to IAVA — represent “a huge step forward for the new veterans movement and a huge step forward for America,” Rieckhoff told NBC News. He called those collective outcomes "historic."

“What we’ve seen from this community is an extraordinary focus on country as well as some pragmatic solutions. We believe these folks can work together across party lines and be a shot in the arm in Washington — exactly what America needs right now,” said Rieckhoff, who served as a first lieutenant and infantry rifle platoon leader in Iraq during 2003 and 2004.

“People think all we’re really doing over there is pulling triggers and dropping bombs. We’re also rebuilding schools, rebuilding infrastructure,” he added. “There’s no better testing ground for a political career than, say, helping the people of Fallujah (Iraq) get their water running again. Think about Staten Island right now — that’s (looking) like Fallujah.”

Overall, post-9/11 veterans competed for 42 Congressional seats on Tuesday night.

The upper tier of the 100 most “military-friendly” employers this year includes three financial giants and three transportation behemoths, but as U.S. companies measurably boost veteran-hiring rates, they’re “not quite there yet,” said the publisher of the ranking, released Thursday.

“As more employers adopt similar policies, it’s getting more competitive to make this list,” said Sean Collins, vice president of Victory Media, which offers its annual index via militaryfriendly.com. “If you’re looking at the list in an isolated sense, that’s a great thing.”

The top-rated “military-friendly” corporation, reports G.I. Jobs, is San Antonio-based USAA, a financial-services outfit created in 1922 by Army officers as a mutual insurance company for other service members. USAA recently launched an initiative called “Combat to Claims,” training post-9/11 veterans to become claims adjustors.

“The reason the program is working so well is because military folks have such a sense of discipline and order,” said Joe Robles, the CEO of USAA and a retired Army major general.

Other highly ranked “military-friendly” employers include Deloitte (No. 3), General Electric (No. 9) and railroad operators CSX (No. 2) and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (No. 5).

“They are able to weave military into the fabric of their companies, as just a way of doing business,” said Collins, who served as a pilot in the U.S. Navy from 2001 to 2009, reaching the rank of lieutenant.

Meanwhile, just keeping a foothold in the elite G.I. Jobs list is equally challenging. Amazon.com – the No. 1 “military friendly” corporation on the 2011 list — comes in at No. 89 this year, despite hiring 600 veterans since January. T-Mobile, No. 10 in last year’s G.I. Jobs index — now sits at No. 71.

Now in its tenth year, the list is assembled through a survey of companies inside and outside the Fortune 1000, Collins said. To ensure consistent comparisons and to capture a broad snapshot of the American employment landscape, Victory Media only assesses businesses with annual revenues of at least $500 million. A weighted scoring system then stacks the top 100: “recruiting efforts” compose 35 percent of a company’s overall “military-friendly” grade, followed by factors such as “recruiting results” and “retention.”

G.I. Jobs — which publishes a similar annual breakdown of the best colleges for veterans — recently partnered with Orion International, the nation’s largest military-recruiting firm. Orion, which specializes in finding civilian careers for junior military officers, noncommissioned officers and enlisted technicians, is actively working to help several U.S. companies grab future spots in the coveted top 100.

“We’re trying to build new programs within a lot of companies that have not been in play with hiring a lot of veterans in the past,” said Mike Starich, president of Orion and a former Marine.