Hire
A Hero (www.hireahero.org) is a non-profit initiative that networks military
veterans and military-friendly employers.
Helmets to Hardhats (www.helmetstohardhats.org) is a program co-sponsored by
the Building and Construction Trades unions and their employer associations to
recruit military veterans to the construction trades.
Veterans in Piping (VIP) (www.uavip.org) is a program created by the United
Association (UA) international plumbers and pipefitters union that elaborates
on Helmets to Hardhats, and is geared specifically to provide employment for
veterans in the union pipe trades.
To all of these programs, yours truly, US54806559, issues a hearty
HOO-RAH!
Amazing, isn’t it, that 41 years after being honorably discharged from the
service, this veteran still can recite his military serial number instantly.
I’m pretty sure I still could field-strip an M-14 rifle as well. (OK, I might
poke myself in the eye trying to present arms, but close order drill never was
my favorite thing.) The U.S. military has its wacky ways, but I have to admit
military training sure does lock in the lessons intended.
And that in a way is the point of this article.
The patriot in me thinks military veterans are owed every consideration we can
grant them for the hard work and sacrifices they’ve made. But that’s not the
main reason to hire them. More pertinent is that today’s military veterans are
some of the best prospects around for skilled trade jobs. Recruiting them is a
win-win because:
- People who serve in today’s all-volunteer military come
predominantly from blue-collar backgrounds. They grew up in a culture of hard
work and unpretentiousness. Trade recruiters often remark how they are hampered
by the trade’s lack of glamour and harsh working conditions. Such drawbacks are
no big deal to people who have served in the hellholes of Iraq and
Afghanistan.
- The Vietnam era conscription military in which I served included a
lot of high-school dropouts and troublemakers who really weren’t fit for
military service. Today’s volunteer veterans, on the whole, are a smart and
disciplined bunch of youngsters. Almost all of them graduated from high school
and stayed out of trouble, or else they wouldn’t have qualified to serve in the
modern U.S. military. Honorable service demonstrates further honing of their
intellect and character.
- Random drug testing is a fact of life in today’s military. So the
rate of drug usage among military veterans is likely to be far lower than among
their peers who have not served. This addresses another big problem facing
trade recruiters. Insurers and safety requirements on many large projects make
drug testing mandatory, and a lot of contractors have incorporated it into
their hiring criteria. Some contractors have told me they turn away more than half
their otherwise qualified apprenticeship and job applicants due to the drug
testing requirement. The rate of failure isn’t necessarily that high, because
many applicants simply fail to show up when it’s time to pee because they know
they won’t pass muster.
- Some military veterans had technical occupational specialties or
skills applicable to your trade. Many of them operated or maintained equipment
worth millions of dollars while still in their teens or early 20s.
In all-around skills and values, today’s military veterans rank as the cream of
their generation. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t know that from most of the
stories about veterans that appear in the news media, which tend to focus on
negatives such as suicides and the occasional lurid murder. Some 1.4 million
military personnel now are on active duty, and there are an estimated 23
million military veterans in the United States. In any population that large,
there are bound to be plenty of instances of aberrant behavior.
What the news media consistently fails to report in these sensational stories
is how military veterans stack up against comparable groups and the population
at-large. Various studies have shown the rates of suicide, criminality, etc.
tend to be even less prevalent among military personnel and veterans than among
non-vets of comparable demographics. Instead of putting things in context, when
a military vet does something bad enough to be newsworthy, the media inevitably
cites post-traumatic stress as a possible cause, reflecting their worldview
that every combat veteran is potentially unhinged. As for me, I suspect you’d
find a smaller ratio of head cases among combat veterans than you’d uncover in
a close investigation of the New York Times news staff.
This is not to deny that there are special challenges facing military veterans
in adjusting to civilian life. Some of them have spent months on end dodging
IEDs and bullets in hellish locations, and a week later, they’re in their
hometown airport, wondering how to make a living. Then they have to cope with a
world in which people dress every which way and don’t automatically do as
they’re told.
To their credit, the UA in their VIP program includes two weeks of instruction
in career and lifestyle transitioning. The schedule is intensive, spanning 8
hours a day, 5 days a week. Construction trade unions seem a particularly tight
cultural fit for military veterans. Both stress intensive training and have
clear-cut pay grades and job responsibilities. Even the union lingo of
“brothers and sisters” invokes an appeal to unity that resembles the bonds that
form in military units. However, unions don’t have a monopoly on trade
recruiting – unless non-union contractors concede it to them. Any company with
decent jobs to offer can go after them.
Think of it the other way around, too. Having military veterans in your
organization could help instill valuable lessons of discipline and teamwork in
otherwise capable workers who might be a little short in those qualities.
If you don’t have a job to offer them, at least show your gratitude to our men
in women in uniform with little courtesies. When you see them in public, tell
them thank you. If they’re passing time in an airport bar, buy them a drink. If
you can afford to do so, give them a business freebie or discount. Military
veterans deserve VIP treatment.
ND
