Jobless vets have options

Donald Stevens left behind a three-year military career in the deserts of Baghdad in 2008, but problems from the battlefield followed him home.

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Jackie Ricciardi/Staff

Donald Stevens works as a support tech at his home in Hephzibah.

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Jackie Ricciardi/Staff

The Iraq war veteran says a local support group helped him with the transition from the battlefield to the civilian employment market.

When he returned to Augusta at age 20, he was an unemployed, disabled veteran.

He doesn't remember many details of the accident in which a tank he was riding on rolled over. But chronic upper body pain, post-traumatic stress and anxiety remind him of it every day.

It took eight months of recovery to build the courage to look for a civilian job when all he has ever known has been war, he said.

"When you come home you don't know the issues you're facing until you're actually there," Stevens said. "I wasn't exactly planning my career when I was overseas. When you come home, it's like coming back to Earth because when you're in the Army you're on planet Mars."

But he said a local veteran transition program helped him get grounded.

Stevens is now a civilian employee working for a customer service agency but knows the struggles of the thousands of unemployed veterans looking for work in Georgia post-deployment.

With 30,000 unemployed veterans in the state as of last year, even war heroes are not immune from the economy's destruction of the job market. In Richmond County, programs to help disabled and unemployed veterans are trying to make the job hunt a little easier.

"It's a tough employment climate here," said Greg Williams, a vocational rehabilitation specialist for the VA Transition Services Center in Augusta.

"The jobs are not as plentiful compared to the number of people out there looking. However, what we're seeing as the saving grace for vets is they're so multiskilled, we can route them in other areas outside of their specialties."

Williams helps run the transition center for returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, which is the only transition program in the country that operates independently of the VA hospital.

Since October, the center has helped 2,943 veterans look for work and make the transition from shooting machine guns to filling out job applications.

Simone Brown, the director of the center, said after partnering with Military to Medicine and Strayer University earlier this year, the groups have been able to teach veterans computer skills and help them find employment or enroll in school.

"A lot of those men, they come off active duty and all they know is a gun and a tank," said Brown, an Army veteran herself. "As this war closes off, we're going to get more."

The TSC launched the computer skills program with transition group Military to Medicine in February. Since then, it has graduated nearly 30 veterans, giving them IT skills to take into the growing market of entry-level medical jobs.

Employers often favor military veterans for their strong work ethic and discipline, according to studies by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). A June SHRM poll showed more than 90 percent of employers that have hired veterans think military employees have the responsibility and problem-solving skills to benefit their companies.

Still, veterans are a large portion of the country's 9.6 percent unemployment rate as of August.

"It's disturbing how many veterans are unemployed or under-employed," said Eric Peterson, the manager of diversity and inclusion for SHRM.

The unemployment rate among returning veterans has also cost the Army this year.

Eddie Ferguson, transition services manager at Fort Gordon, said when service members apply for unemployment it's the military that has to reimburse the states.

Between April and June the army paid out $129 million for unemployment. The total for that period in 2009 was $91 million.

Peterson said his organization has increased outreach this year to help employers learn the benefits of hiring a veteran and how to overcome common challenges that come with military employees.

Most of the problems employers have with veterans have to do with how battlefield experience can translate to civilian jobs, Peterson said. While they might be on time with boots shined and ready to accomplish a goal, veterans can also bring mental and emotional baggage to the workplace.

"For them it's not just 'Here's your cubicle, and here's your booklet,' " Peterson said. "With veterans there are also short-term challenges you need to work through to get long-term benefits."

Even veterans who don't have physical scars carry with them emotional trauma that can show up in the workplace. Brown remembers a client who found work in law enforcement at a jail post deployment, but couldn't handle the clicks of metal gates -- memories of the battlefield.

The Georgia Department of Labor Vocational Rehabilitation Program in Augusta is working to make sure employers are prepared when hiring such veterans, said Vocational Rehabilitation counselor Senita Thorne.

In June, Thorne's group a roundtable for nearly 15 local employers to help match veterans to local jobs.

For veterans like Stevens, it makes a world of difference.

"They're not just touching the service and 'bam' you're out the door," Stevens said. "It doesn't just end when you get a job. This is your life."