By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
“I was a sniper in the Marines. Not too many companies are hiring snipers,” Sgt. Dakota Meyer, the youngest living Congressional Medal of Honor winner, told a small but enthusiastic crowd Monday night at the Jacksonville Community Center.
Meyer, along with Arkansas native Gen. Wesley Clark, were part of a four-member panel sponsored by Hiring Our Heroes and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They spoke to veterans and others about the transition into civilian life and finding jobs.
The discussion centered on the need for veterans, employers and the community to all do their part in bringing the veteran into the civilian workforce.
Meyer told the audience that his sniper training in the military translated to leadership skills, accountability and loyalty, but many of today’s employers won’t even talk to someone without a bachelor’s degree.
“I’m just high school educated. I’d put anyone in the military against anyone with a bachelor’s degree. Think of all the training and practical application. There is nothing in the civilian workforce that is more challenging than what I saw and did in the military.”
The panel — which also included veteran Nicole Hart, founder and CEO of ARVets, and Donald Esmond, co-chairman of the Washington-based Veterans Employment Advisory Council — gave advice for veterans trying to get into the workforce, suggested educating employers better about veterans and pushed a computer program that puts military jargon into English, so potential employers have a better idea of the training veterans have.
“Depending on the amount of training a veteran has had, the program, ResumeEngine.org, will state ‘equivalent of a bachelor’s degree,’” Esmond explained. He added, “Every vet is trainable and that’s what a college degree says.”
Esmond said, next to his parents’ teachings, he learned more in the Marine Corps than anywhere else. “I learned about loyalty, respect, leading by example, competing with the best and teamwork,” he said.
The unemployment rate for veterans is higher than the general public rate of about 8 percent. Clark said, “It is trickling down, in part to efforts like this.”
It was an all-star panel — Gen. Clark, wounded in Vietnam, went on to become NATO Supreme Allied commander and a presidential candidate. Meyer won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Esmond, a Purple Heart recipient, flew 900 combat helicopter missions in Vietnam, was shot down twice and was able to walk away both times. Hart, a combat veteran of the Iraq War, held the hands of a number of combat friends as they drew their last breath.
The Jacksonville event was held in conjunction with the Hiring Our Heroes military hiring fair Tuesday at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
Clark led off Monday night’s discussion with three points for the veterans.
“First,” he said, “you have to be prepared for a different environment. The civilian workforce is not the same as mother Army.”
Clark received advice when he was getting ready to go back into the civilian world. “There’s no one in charge, I was told. You are your own profit or loss center,” the general said.
“Secondly,” Clark said, “you need to be open. The key is to get into the workforce and then move up or around. Chances are your first civilian job is not the one you will be in for 40 years.”
His third point was that there are a lot of hard-working people out there. “Sometimes the military thinks it has the monopoly on hard work, but it doesn’t. You need to treat everyone with respect,” he said.
Clark didn’t sugarcoat the transition. “It’s not a cakewalk. It is a hard transition to make. I don’t want to soft sell it.”
Meyer said part of the problem is that the public doesn’t always understand what a veteran has done or gone through. “They don’t have the understanding because we have done such a good job,” he explained.
Hart echoed those thoughts “The public needs to be educated. If the veteran was having problems before he went in, he’ll have them after he gets out. If he had no job before he went in he won’t have one after. Whatever problems he had before, he’ll have after.”
Esmond said employers need to be more aware of the skills a veteran has. “Veterans hire veterans because they know what they are getting, but other employers have a ‘Sorry, we don’t have any security guard jobs’ mentality. But once they begin to hire vets, they get it and it becomes a win-win deal.”
Meyer put part of the blame on the military. “They do a good job taking you from civilian life to the military. They have that down to a ‘T,’ but they aren’t doing such a good job transitioning veterans back out.”
“‘Leave No Man Behind’ is not just a wartime action,” Meyer said, “but don’t just give us a job. We are not a charity. Remember we are selfless not selfish.”
He said at one time it was not cool to look like a Marine, and many veterans would grow long hair and a beard to hide their Marine background.
“Those things that made us successful in the military are needed in civilian life too. Why hide the fact that we’ve accomplished what just 1 percent of people get to do,” he said.
Hart said, “A shop with five or 10 employees, hiring a veteran can have a tremendous ripple effect.”
Clark added, “If veterans are allowed to get on the first step of a ladder, get into one game, one play, they will make the catch.”
He said the best source of jobs for the veterans is their family.
“Veterans have got to write home and have them start looking and helping months in advance. You can’t say, ‘I just got out give me a job.’ But the first place to start is at home.”
