By Richard Sisk
The War Report
Master sergeants and lance corporals, Army specialists and Navy petty officers, and even a 68-year-old Vietnam vet – all out of work, and some near desperate for a job.
They were among thousands of vets doing the familiar “hurry up and wait” drill as they joined the wraparound lines at first light today to hunt for employment at the Veteran Career Fair and Expo sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
About 6,500 jobs in the mid-Atlantic region were up for grabs with government agencies – including the VA itself – and 20 private sector firms ranging from Microsoft, Citibank and Coca Cola to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the Philadelphia Police Department.
VA officials said they had 35,000 hits on their website asking about the event at the Walter Washington Convention Center and they expected about 10,000 to attend.
“It’s bad out there, there’s no jobs,” said Marine Lance Cpl. Carlos Fuentes, 24, who put in a tour in Afghanistan’s Helmand province in 2009. Fuentes has done all the right things – going to school at American university on the new GI Bill for a degree in political science in hopes of landing a job in intelligence, maybe on Capitol Hill.
“I just want to hit as many places as I can here to get an idea of what might be available,” Fuentes said.
In addition to the possibility of a job, the Career Fair also offered one-on-one classes on making out resumes, doing interviews and figuring out the VA bureaucracy to get benefits.
But Carol Bryant, a Sergeant 1st Class in the National Guard, said employers also need an education on what vets have to offer. Bryant, 51, said she’s been out of work for two years and “I need to find something fast.”
Bryant said she’s gotten nothing but thumbs down from bosses so far: “Some say thanks for you service but that’s all you get,” she said. “They tell you entry level, if they tell you anything – I’m not entry level.”
The jobs market is especially tough for vets. Unemployment for vets is at 13.1%, compared to the national average of 8.5%, and joblessness for younger Iraq and Afghanistan vets is above 20%.
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, a retired four-star Army general, said the stats make no sense since hiring a vet should be a no-brainer.“We need their leadership and ingenuity,” Shinseki said, but “too many have had a hard time finding work. This generation is particularly challenged.”
The task for government is to convince employers that “hiring a vet is good for their bottom line,” said Brad Cooper, executive director of the White House’s Joining Forces initiative promoted by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden.
Joining Forces last year challenged private employers to come up 100,000 jobs for vets, and Cooper, a Navy captain who served in Afghanistan, said about 35,000 have thus far found employment through the program.
Officer Leona Rainey, all sharp creases and spit shine in the uniform of the Philadelphia PD, needed no convincing. Rainey, 52, a Sergeant 1st Class in the Army Reserves who served in Desert Storm in Kuwait, said the department has about 100 openings for the next class of recruits and getting vets to fill the openings was a top priority. “They come to the table ready to serve because they’ve been serving,” Rainey said.
Rainey said applicants had to be at least 21 but there was no upper age limit, which might’ve appealed to 68-year-old James Royal, who served in 1964 as a Marine lance corporal in Vietnam.
Royal said he was scoping out the booths on the outside chance that there might be something for him, but his main reason for coming was to check with the VA people on site on behalf of his buddies on what benefits they might rate. “I run across a lot of people who have issues, they don’t know about their benefits,” Royal said.
Former Army Spec. Joseph Peters, 28, was filling out a bunch of forms but was realistic about his prospects of a job in health care management in the current economic climate. “I think it’s going to be a while.”
Peters said he had just graduated from Southern Illinois University on the GI Bill. “I wouldn’t have been able to go without the housing stipend,” Peters said, and he’s telling all his buddies to go back to school while waiting for the job market to improve.
“There’s no reason why you can’t go,” Peters said, “and you’re crazy if you don’t.”
[Photo: VA photo by Robert Turtil]
