How do you handle civilian employers who have no idea how the "citizen soldier" concept is supposed to work?

The ESGR is an excellent resource. They have dedicated ombudsmen who can help with employer issues. I've had to get them involved on more than one occasion for some of my troops. Unfortunately there are a number of employers out there who will violate USERRA law and then bully the employee over it.

I have actually had to take fellow (non-veteran) supervisors aside and explain to them the role of the reserves and national guard and WHY it is important to support their employees that are members of these.

Unfortunately, even when you have a semi-supportive boss who knows the rules, you get the "wait, you're going again?" and "you sure take a lot of military duty". I can't tell you how many times I have been asked "so this is your two weeks duty?" and I have to explain that the Army Reserve involves a lot more than two weeks a year especially if you are a leader. The unfortunate thing is that you often cannot prove the prejudice that may be in decision makers minds when they are selecting the next person for promotion. They seem to think that if you are taking days here and there, then you must not be dedicated to your civilian job, when the common fact is that you are putting in extra hours on your civilian job so that you can go perform your military duty without letting the civilian performance suffer.