Fort Carson – Seth Harper is sure the sheriff in his hometown will hire him for a corrections job at the local jail when he leaves the Army in June.
The lockup in Farmington City, Utah, would be a good steppingstone toward the law-enforcement career he has planned, said Harper, 22.
Harper’s confidence in his job prospects was bolstered at a recent three-day U.S. Department of Labor training program for departing soldiers that he attended.
During two tours in Iraq, Harper learned to live with fear and defend himself and his buddies as they searched for insurgents. He is optimistic that the experience he gained crashing into suspected hideouts and disarming and cuffing suspects will come in handy in his chosen career, he said.
He and about 70 other soon-to-be veterans attended the training to learn a more mundane skill – how to find a job.
“I have plans,” he said. “I’m going to pursue them, but what is going to happen six years down the line? This is teaching me how to dress, how to do a proper résumé.”
About 65 percent of those leaving the military use transitional- assistance programs similar to the one Harper attended, said Charles “Chick” Ciccolella, assistant secretary of labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training Service. The program is a partnership between the U.S. departments of Labor and Defense.
At a time when unemployment among young veterans is soaring, there is a need for even more of the training, said Bill Dozier, assistant director of employment and homeless programs for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
But in some military units, commanders won’t let their personnel take time off from work to attend the classes, he said.
The transitional-assistance program is available on 170 bases where troops are discharged in the U.S. and at installations overseas. But it isn’t readily available to reservists, who are sent to their home states to be deactivated and who would need to find a military base where the program is offered.
The VFW is lobbying Congress to give reservists better access to the training, Dozier said.
Instructors at the classes offer tactics for selling military skills to employers who might not see the value in them.
Chris Romero, 21, operated heavy equipment in Iraq. He also learned to maintain his vehicle and now plans to work as a mechanic on heavy equipment.
“I learned that it will take a résumé and application to get a job in a blue-collar area,” he said, “because that is what people are interested in, seeing what you can do on paper.”
