About Us
Mission Statement
Rules of Conduct
 
Name:
Pswd:
Remember Me
Register
 

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/15/2014 10:15:45

Good Morning.

Today is our 4,573th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan : 2,313
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan : 1,114

We find this morning's Cost of War passing through:

1, 526, 471, 575, 000 .00



Let's dive right in, since I've got a lot of material today. As we get closer to the end of the year, more and more of our troops from Afghanistan will be returning to these United States. Some will remain in the service, but many more will be facing the civilian job market. In addition to the general economic hardships we all still face, there's another factor to consider....many of our returning vets haven't been out of uniform in years.


COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sgt Maj. Chris Fletcher was a teenager the last time he had a civilian job.

The Peachtree City, Ga., native, now 40, flipped burgers at McDonald’s. He worked as a busboy at a convention center. And he was a clerk at a convenience store.

In 1993, Fletcher joined the U.S. Army. Since then he has been deployed to Bosnia and Macedonia, twice to Afghanistan and numerous times to Kuwait, rising to the highest noncommissioned rank. Now, 20 years later, with a wife and 18- and 15-year-old daughters, he is retiring from U.S. Army Central in Sumter, S.C. He’s entering the civilian job market with a little trepidation.

“It’s stepping out into the unknown,” said Fletcher. “The Army is all I know.”

He is not alone.

With the military set to be radically reduced after the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines will have to step out of a uniform and into a business suit during a tough, post-recession job climate. They face challenges translating their military skills to civilian jobs — from writing a civilian resume, to just speaking English instead of using prolific military acronyms.

Also, with all U.S. combat troops expected to come home from Afghanistan by the end of this year, National Guard members and reserve troops will have to find civilian employment while still serving part time.

“A lot of these folks shouldered a heavy load in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Brig. Gen. Bradley Becker, commanding general of Columbia’s Fort Jackson, the nation’s largest military training base. “They have a lot of experience and are tested in battle. But while they are experienced and tested, they haven’t been in the job market.”

Numerous programs are available to help veterans find jobs, such as the Defense Department’s active duty Transition Assistance Program, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes job fairs and Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.

The U.S. military has about 1.4 million active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. There are another 850,000 troops in the National Guard and reserves.

About 170,000 troops leave the military each year due to normal attrition, such as retirements. But as the war in Afghanistan winds down — all combat troops are expected to be out of the country by the end of this year — more troops will be forced to leave the military as the different branches of the service contract.


There is some good news on the veteran's job front. There's now a list of the "top ten" veteran's companies, meaning the ones that hire the most returning vets. As it turns out, a lot of skills soldiers have are actually relevant in civilian life, but I suspect that a helicopter door-gunner may still find opportunities limited. (No offence intended.)


Troops transitioning out of the military often worry that the jobs they did in uniform will be irrelevant to the jobs they want out of uniform.

They’re often wrong.

“We’ve seen that 85 percent of military jobs have a direct civilian counterpart at Verizon,” said Evan Guzman, the company’s head of military programs and veteran affairs. “Even if you were a cook in the Army, let’s say, you know a lot of these cooks are good at handling generators.”

Such skills are in high demand at Verizon, Guzman said, as are those associated with information technology, logistics, project management, engineering, construction, human resources and public relations — skills that cover a broad range of military jobs.

“There isn’t a position within the military that we can’t find a place for in Verizon,” Guzman said.

Verizon landed the No. 2 spot in the 2014 version of our Best for Vets: Employers rankings. USAA took the top spot for the third consecutive year, with CACI International Inc., BAE Systems Inc. and Union Pacific rounding out the top five.

More companies than ever completed this year’s survey. All but one told us they’re hiring right now, and that one company plans to start hiring within the next 12 months.

Veterans and reservists made up about 13 percent, on average, of the total workforce of companies responding to our survey and accounted for about 16 percent of their 2013 hires.

Companies told us they dedicated an average of more than one-fifth of their recruiting budget specifically to military recruiting. More than four out of five have at least one military recruiter. About 95 percent attend military-specific job fairs, and those companies went to an average of 36 such events in 2013.

On the other hand, fewer than one in 10 offer credit toward retirement for military service. About 23 percent have a slight veterans hiring preference; fewer than 16 percent have a significant hiring preference.

Only half allow transfer to another company branch for a military spouse whose husband is reassigned to another base, while one-third allow spouses to work off-site.

USAA offers both options.

“USAA has been doing military vet hiring for many, many years. This is not something that is new to us — it is part of our DNA,” said Jackie Purdy, assistant vice president for talent acquisition. “We do not forget the military spouse.”

To that end, the company is piloting a program to hire and then train a class full of military spouses to work from home as customer service representatives.

That way, Purdy added, wherever the husband or wife may end up assigned, “the military spouse continues to be gainfully employed.”


But of course, and you know there had to be a caveat, Congress isn't on that list.


WASHINGTON — Members of Congress often urge federal agencies and the private sector to hire military veterans, but a survey suggests they rarely follow that advice with their personal staff.

The survey says veterans made up less than 3 percent of the staff in the congressional offices that responded. The survey was conducted by HillVets, an organization of veterans serving in government.

Slightly more than half the 535 congressional offices elected to respond to the survey. Lawmakers held a press conference Tuesday to discuss its results and to unveil a new fellowship program they hope will increase the number of veterans working on Capitol Hill.

Under the program, veteran fellows will be assigned to a lawmaker's office where they will learn about the legislative process and how to assist constituents in dealing with federal agencies. The fellows will earn a certificate once they complete the program, which lawmakers say could give them an advantage in finding more permanent work.

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, said he constantly hears lawmakers discuss the need for others to hire more veterans.

"'You've got to hire veterans. Let's hire veterans. This is our duty.' You hear it on the floor a lot," Young said. "When we found out the percentage of veterans on this Hill, I was disgusted."

Young said the small percentage of veterans on Capitol Hill reflects the need for lawmakers to do a better job of outreach. Other lawmakers said it can also be difficult to find veterans who want to work on their staff. Rep. Bill Enyart, a former member of the Air Force and adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard, said many of the workers on congressional staffs are young, often just out of college, and willing to work for low pay. He said many veterans are older, have families and simply need to find jobs that pay better than those on a congressional staff.

"A large part of the problem is frankly, we pay our staffers miserably," said Enyart, D-Ill. "We need to pay these veterans a decent living wage so they can afford to work for us."


Finally this morning...it is April 15. We all know what happened a year ago. Because of the way the holiday falls (It's a floater, and is the Monday of school vacation week), this year's marathon isn't until next Monday. But here's something you'll want to look out for.


On Marathon Monday, look for number 28,255.

Bruce Mendelsohn will be wearing that bib. The 45-year-old Army veteran is director of communications and outreach at the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program. He was awarded the coveted number for his essay sent to the Boston Athletic Association’s “Profoundly Affected” program. About 450 numbers have been handed out.

Mendelsohn wrote of being at the finish line when the bombs went off and applying a tourniquet to a Northeastern University student’s leg. He also told MIT officer Sean Collier to “stay safe” just hours before the young man was murdered. That wasn’t in the essay, yet it remains a painful memory of a week nobody can forget. Running is now Mendelsohn’s therapy. Here’s his story, as told to the Herald’s Joe Dwinell:

“Fate or the universe can try to beat us down, but we’re not going to be defeated. I’m personally not going to let the terrorists change the way we want to run our lives.

I run with my thoughts. I don’t use an iPod. I think how pretty it is outside and what I could have done better. I don’t view myself as a hero, but as doing my obligation as a citizen. That’s what makes Boston strong. In a crisis or triumph, the strength of us together is insurmountable.

When I train I think of all the people who can’t do this. It’s an obligation, almost, to do this race. (He’s run marathons before, but never the Boston Marathon.)

I don’t want to go to a therapist to talk about the bombing — I just want to run. It’s supremely important for me to run this race. When I trained recently and got to Route 128, I could see the top of the Pru and I started crying.

I had a brother who ran last year’s race, and he finished in 2:52. We walked to a party at Marlo Marketing three floors up from where the first bomb went off on Boylston Street. I yelled ‘Get back’ from the windows and then the next bomb went off. I ran into the chaos. I saw a girl half in and half out of Sugar Heaven (a candy store) bleeding. I put a tourniquet around her lower leg and pleaded ‘Get her out of here.’ I was told it saved her leg.

I want to share my story with everybody. This race is going to be 26.2 miles of therapy for me.”


Next Monday, your loyal TriSec and his offspring will be live-blogging from the "lyrical little bandbox". We've got tickets to the Patriot's Day game, and I expect to do the Rite of Passage thing, as this will be Javier's first MLB game. Hopefully we can be in the square to catch Rick and Dick Hoyt go by in what is billed as their last Boston Marathon.

Fuck Terrorism, mmkay?

http://www.boston.com/sports/blogs/thebuzz/april13sports/BostonStrongRibbon.jpg

 

45 comments (Latest Comment: 04/16/2014 01:25:41 by TriSec)
   Perma Link

Share This!

Furl it!
Spurl
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati