When Soldiers Return

1/21/2012 10:45 AM
When Soldiers Return: Part One
By: Lara Greenberg

As the economy has continued to struggle, more and more people are counting themselves among the unemployed. And many of those without jobs are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Officials said veterans should be the first to get hired but it’s not always so easy.

In part one of our series, When Soldiers Return, Lara Greenberg tells us why vets are having such a hard time finding work.


As the economy has continued to struggle, more and more people are counting themselves among the unemployed. And many of those without jobs are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.



SOUTHERN TIER, N.Y. -- These soldiers fight for our country every day. But when it’s time to come home and leave the military, it is often a tough transition.

Chesapeake Energy Field Foreman Kevin Schwin said, “You get just a different culture. Going out of the military, being in the military for 11 years, that’s a whole huge transition for any of our veterans. So there’s always a fear of the unknown. You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Often that fear of the unknown is what keeps these men and women from finding steady work.

Dawn Smith, Bath VA OEF, OIF, OND Program Manager said, “They’re coming back not quite sure whether they want to go to school, whether they want to go to work, even what their benefits are, what they’re entitled to.”

The US Labor Department said the national unemployment rate for non-veterans was 9.4 percent in 2010. But for veterans who served in the military between 2001 and 2010, the jobless rate was much higher, 11.5 percent.

Veterans themselves have a few ideas about why that number is so high.

Jake Swanson, Chesapeake Energy Completions Foreman said, “I’m from Spokane, Washington. I would have loved to have gone home. But you know I needed to be employed. And this was a great opportunity. So I moved to Pennsylvania and started to work for Chesapeake. Where I think a lot of people put up a road barrier or a road block and they only want to find jobs that are within 20 miles of their house.”

“It’s hard to take military language and then convey that into civilian world. So it’s really getting that first in the door and then your actions will speak once you get into a job. But tailoring your resume to corporate America is a challenge,” said Schwin.

Putting together a good resume is something that can be taught. Veteran Affairs and places like CareerLink in Pennsylvania help vets get on their civilian feet.

Rob Shannon supervises CareerLink in Tioga County, Pennsylvania.

Shannon said, “It’s not something they’ve ever done before. I was a veteran myself. I was stationed in Fort Drum myself. And when I left the force, they never taught me how to write a resume. So that’s one of the main barriers here in the office.”

Shannon said of the people who come through the CareerLink Center, about ten percent of them are veterans. Those veterans get priority service and a case manager to help see them through until they find a job.

“Right now in our system we have about 130 open job orders which totals about 460 jobs because most of those openings are for more than one opening. There’s room for them. We just need them to come down and talk to us so we can get them out there,” said Shannon.

Sometimes getting the veterans to come through the door is the hardest part. Shannon said some show up within a few weeks of leaving the service. Others are just starting the process, after being discharged in 2005 and 2006. But whenever they’re ready, he and hundreds of employers are ready to help get them back to work.

And Lara tells us there’s one industry in our region that’s been hiring veterans by the hundreds. Sunday, she’ll explain why this controversial business appears to be a perfect fit for veterans.


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