Former Marine Cpl. Nathan Groome was home from Iraq and looking for a job when friends told him veterans were in demand at Home Depot.
“The idea was presented to me that they pay well and they like military veterans. I thought, I’ll give it a shot,” said Groome, 24, who now works in the paint department at a Home Depot in Littleton.
Other companies, such as Denver-based Qwest, also recruit veterans. But the big-box chain, which has more than 1,800 stores nationwide, is doing so on a scale that dwarfs most other efforts. The company has even given the recruitment drive a military-sounding name: Operation Career Front.
Since 2003, Home Depot has hired 43,000 veterans, said JoAnn Compton, human resources manager for the Littleton store. Veterans represent 13 percent of the Atlanta-based chain’s workforce.
“The philosophy is that military folks come with great leadership, great skills and work ethic, and fit in well with Home Depot,” Compton said.
Groome was in command of a Humvee patrolling outside Fallujah when a roadside bomb blast punched through the floorboards and left him with scarred legs and a vivid memory.
“There was no illumination from the moon,” he said. “It was sweat-sticking-to-your-back type of hot even at night. It was normal quiet and there was just a loud bang and I heard a ringing in my ears.”
The leadership experience and skills he learned in the Marine Corps make him an asset to his employer, said Groome, who plans to go back to college and become a history teacher.
Pamela Moran, 25, who was a member of an Army crew that worked on a Patriot missile battery, also works at Home Depot. She expects the discipline she learned in the Army to help her in the work world. But the job skills she learned in the military aren’t much use, said Moran, who is working part time and attending community college.
“Honestly,” she said, “I can’t do anything with what I learned.”
