The Department of Agriculture and Chamber of Commerce Foundation on Feb. 17 announced a joint initiative to help veterans gain employment in the agricultural industry. The USDA plans to leverage the foundation's Hiring Our Heroes program to connect with former military personnel transitioning into life after service.
"Today's agreement opens the door for thousands of service members who participate in Hiring Our Heroes events around the world to benefit from USDA's vast array of tools and resources," Lanon Baccam, the USDA's deputy under secretary for farm and foreign agricultural services and military veterans agricultural liaison, said in a press release. "This new partnership strengthens USDA's ongoing efforts to help veterans pursue rewarding careers in farming, ranching, or in the fast-growing agriculture and food sectors."
Filling farm employment gaps
Many in the agricultural industry a farmer shortage is nearing, reported Forbes contributor Geoff Williams. According to the USDA, the average American farmer is around 60 years old. Additionally, only 6 percent of farmers are under the age of 35 which means, in a few decades, one-fourth of the population will have retired for good. Industry experts believe almost a million new farmers will be required to maintain current levels of production. The number of crop workers is also falling. Most are around 40 years old, reported The Wall Street Journal.
According to NBC News, the reasoning behind the shortage is simple: Younger Americans don't want to work in the agricultural sector.
"The aging of American farmers coupled with fewer students in agriculture studies and the fact that so many younger people don't look at it as a profession to get into is very worrisome," Milt McGiffen, an agriculture professor at the University of California, Riverside, told the news organization.
Stakeholders take on the problem
Private companies have attempted to address the impending farmer shortage by lobbying Congress to act. The legislative body is currently evaluating legislation that would address the problem. The Young Farmer Success Act would allow young farmers who operate qualified farms or ranches to apply for government assistance and take part in a loan-forgiveness program. According to industry experts, starting a farm is immensely expensive.
"You've got to buy the land, the equipment, find buyers for your product. It's very hard work. Plus there's always the uncertainty of the weather. It's not an easy life," Jay Jackman, executive director for the National Association of Agricultural Educators, told NBC News.
Others believe young veterans could fill the void left by aging farmers, reported The New York Times. And, a number of nonprofits have developed to act on this notion. The Farmer Veteran Coalition, based in Davis, California, provides educational and financial resources to thousands of former military members looking to start farms or ranches. According to the organization, 72 percent of these veterans enlisted after 9/11 and 59 percent have disabilities sustained in combat.
For many veterans who take advantage of programs offered by organizations like the Farmer Veteran Coalition, agriculture is a natural fit. Often, these men and women come from rural backgrounds and arrive home after the service looking for a quiet yet productive career.
"My goal is to find a job where I can move my family somewhere more remote so we enjoy life," Erik Fries, a Marine veteran who works with an agricultural nonprofit in Illinois, told The Times. "I guess I'm looking for a simpler life. I really would love to start a family business and I feel a small-scale farm would be ideal."
Government steps in
Congress in 2014, as part of the Agriculture Act, created an initiative to fund veterans interested in starting farms. And, last year, the USDA formed an interagency partnership with the Department of Defense in an effort to integrate agricultural training into the military's Transition Assistance Program.
The USDA hopes its collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce Foundation will help save American farms while providing fulfilling and stable careers to ex-military personnel.
"When our young men and women raise their hand to serve, they're doing so for a greater mission and a greater purpose and a greater good," Eric Eversole, president of Hiring Our Heroes, said in an interview with the Military Times. "The greater good also exists in agriculture: You're feeding the world's people."
Military veterans making the transition back into civilian life need support. Fortunately, there are myriad resources they can turn to when things get difficult.
Look to fellow members of the military
Often, veterans struggling with life after service rely on the very men and women they served with, reported The New York Times. Many former soldiers form loose support networks and help fellow veterans adjust everyday life. They also provide aid in crisis situations.
“The guys we served with, they are the only ones we can really talk to,” Manny Bojorquez, a Marine veteran and a member of one of these networks, told The Times.
Others have established legitimate support organizations. One such group, called Team Rubicon, recruits veterans for international humanitarian missions. William McNulty, a Marine veteran and co-founder of Team Rubicon, says the organization helps ex-military members connect and focus on something bigger than themselves.
“Veterans believe in a team environment,” he told The Times. “They want to be part of a team bigger than themselves.”
Tap into traditional services
Despite its recent failings, the Department of Veterans Affairs does offer a variety of valuable services. The GI Bill has provided educational resources to millions of veterans since its establishment in 1944. And, the post-9/11 iteration of the program offers extra services, including vocational and technical training, tutorial assistance and on-the-job training.
According to U.S. News & World Report, over half of veterans who take advantage of the GI Bill and other comparable resources thrive after school. Almost a million former members of the military used education benefits programs in 2012.
Find third-party organizations
Many third-party groups offer assistance to veterans. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America provides a social media network catered to former members of the military and hosts hundreds of events across the country each year. It also lobbies Congress to take action on issues impacting active duty personnel and veterans, reported The Times.
The War Writers’ Campaign hosts writing workshops for veterans and provides financial support to those looking to publish their work.
“The mission right now is to promote social change surrounding veterans’ issues through written awareness,” Ryan Weemer, a Marine veteran and the group’s co-founder, said in an interview with The Times. “We feel that writing has that healing process. Therapy through communication.”
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 11 introduced legislation that would end the Selective Service System, reported The Wall Street Journal. This proposal comes amidst controversy surrounding the decision by Defense Secretary Ash Carter to open all combat positions in the U.S. military to women.
Reps. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., Jared Polis, D-Colo. and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., sponsored the bill.
"Now that women are eligible to serve in combat roles and Congress debates how to proceed on the issue of draft inclusion, we should consider a full repeal of the draft and the abolition of the Selective Service," Coffman said in an interview with the newspaper.
Confronting controversy
Carter's decision in December forced Defense Department officials and legislators to reevaluate long-established military practices, including conscription. The Selective Service System currently requires male citizens and permanent residents 18-25 years of age to register.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., both veterans, proposed separate legislation earlier this month that would make women subject to conscription, reported The Washington Post. According to its authors, the bill was merely symbolic – a legislative protest against Carter's unilateral decision to open all combat positions to women.
"If this Administration wants to send 18-20 year old women into combat, to serve and fight on the front lines, then the American people deserve to have this discussion through their elected representatives," Hunter said in a statement. "This discussion should have occurred before decision making of any type, but the fact that it didn't now compels Congress to take a honest and thorough look at the issue."
Hunter plans to vote against his own legislation.
According to NPR, top military officials have mixed views on the issue. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a recent hearing he would support legislation requiring women to register for the draft. Gen. Robert Neller, commandant of the Marine Corps, said he would also support such a change.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus was less certain and called for more discussion on the matter.
"This needs to be looked at as part of a national debate, given the changed circumstances," he said.
A different conversation
Coffman and his co-sponsors on the bill to drop the draft are steering clear of the women-in-combat controversy altogether and addressing the Selective Service System on its own merits. He believes the concept of conscription itself is antiquated. Additionally, selective service enrollment is required for many government employment and loan programs which means those who don't sign up miss out valuable economic resources.
"Not only will abolishing the selective service save the U.S. taxpayers money, it will remove an undue burden on our nation's young people," DeFazio told The Wall Street Journal. "We haven't utilized the draft since 1973, yet young men who don't register for the selective service are still penalized by the U.S. government, particularly with regards to their federal student loans."
Selective service costs over $20 million each year.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 9 passed a handful of veterans bills, reported the Military Times. The legislation addresses education, health and regulatory issues impacting former members of the military.
VA reform continues
In May 2014, federal investigators discovered that administrators at the Department of Veterans Affairs had manipulated waiting lists at a veterans medical center in Phoenix to cover up abnormally long wait times, reported The New York Times. As many as 1,700 patients failed to receive treatment as a result. This revelation set off a nationwide controversy over the department's seemingly mangled inner workings. Further investigations uncovered widespread internal disarray. Approximately 57,000 veterans had been waiting for treatment for at least three months and another 64,000 had never even seen a doctor despite requesting appointments for a decade.
Legislators promised to address the issue.
"It's time to put the partisanship aside and focus on what's right for our veterans," Sen. John Walsh of Montana told The Times.
In August 2014, President Barack Obama signed into law the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability and Transparency Act which gave the VA $16 billion to overhaul its infrastructure, reported Politico.
On Feb. 9, the House added to the 2014 reform bill by passing an additional measure that would enable federal entities like the Army Corps of Engineers to oversee large-scale VA construction projects, reported The Times. According to Stars and Stripes, the VA is currently managing ongoing projects totaling $100 million. The House passed another bill that would require the department to assign specialized administrative teams to medical facilities that fail to meet regulatory expectations.
Addressing health concerns
According to the Los Angeles Times, legislators put through a piece of legislation that would fund suicide prevention programs for female veterans. The bill was designed to complement the Clay Hunt SAV Act, a 2015 law that requires the VA to periodically review its mental health guidelines. It would also require the VA and other government agencies to develop special mental health standards for veterans who took on classified combat roles.
"This is an important first step," Rep. Julia Brownley of California, the bill's sponsor, said in an interview with the paper. "It's pretty simple and straightforward, but it's also a really important direction that the VA needs to go in."
The House addressed benefits disbursement, passing legislation that would automate veterans' cost-of-living adjustments.
Improvements to the GI bill
Representatives passed another bill that would require higher education programs eligible for payment under the GI bill to obtain state accreditation and report on veteran enrollment.
"I strongly believe that we should take whatever steps necessary to simplify the veterans' education benefits our service members earned," Rep. Ken Calvert of California, the bill's sponsor, said in a statement.
The National Park Service may limit the number of items it gathers from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, reported The Associated Press. The department plans to keep only items associated with veterans listed on the memorial.
"By refining the scope of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Collection, we can ensure that our energy and resources will preserve items with a direct and specific relationship to veterans of the Vietnam War," Gay Vietzke, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, told Reuters.
According to Statista, around four million people visit the monument every year.
The park service has been collecting items left at the monument since 1982, reported PBS. It stores them in the Museum Resource Center in Washington D.C. Over the years, the department has collected over 500,000 items from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, including a customized Harley-Davidson motorcycle, military decorations and thousands of personal notes.
"It really is a very unique collection – and a vast majority of these items are left anonymously," Bob Sonderman, director and regional curator of the Museum Resource Center, said in an interview with the news organization.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is currently raising funds to build a new storage facility for the items. The space, called The Education Center at The Wall, will cost over $100 million. According to its architects, the building will not only showcase some of the items but also contain portraits for each of the more than 58,000 combat veterans memorialized on the Vietnam monument and an interactive timeline of the war.
In August of last year, the National Park Service also created a virtual collection of 500 items left behind at the memorial.
The park service is now accepting public comments on the proposed changes to its item-collection policy. The deadline is March 10.
On Feb. 9, the Obama administration released its 2017 budget proposal, reported The New York Times. The spending blueprint calls for an additional $75.1 billion in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The total proposed budget for the VA amounts to $178.7 billion, a 5 percent increase over the department's budget for the 2016 fiscal year.
Congress must still approve the plan. According to Stars and Stripes, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs was scheduled to hold its fist hearing on the proposal Feb. 10.
The budget plan includes frameworks for improving the VA's much-maligned internal processes. Approximately $46.2 million is earmarked for an initiative to modernize the benefit claims process. The administration plans to hire an additional 242 full-time VA employees and purchase new technology to streamline the system.
"Unfortunately, under current law today, the VA appeals framework is not serving the needs of our veterans," the administration said in a news release. "The current process – which has built up over the past 80 years – is complex, ineffective and opaque."
The proposal sets aside $7.2 billion for outside health programs and $1.6 billion for programs for homeless veterans. In 2009 former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki made a pledge to end homelessness among veterans by 2015. Though the department failed to achieve this goal, it has made strides in combating the problem. With federal aid, cities like Phoenix have successfully housed all of their formerly homeless veterans, reported The New York Times. And, under the Obama administration, homelessness among veterans has fallen by 32 percent, reported PolitiFact. The budget also calls for $65 million to fund over 1,000 VA medical facilities across the country. These sites serve an estimated 9 million veterans.
The discovery of a forgotten Purple Heart has united distant family members, reported The Associated Press.
U.S. Army technician Eugene Victor Call and seven other soldiers were killed March 2, 1945 in Kapellen, Germany during World War II's Battle of the Bulge. The 32-year-old was a part of 2nd Platoon, Company C, 643rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, 83rd Infantry Division. Call received a posthumous Purple Heart for his service.
In October of 2015, Virginia Diagle of Fitchburg, Massachusetts passed away at the age of 82, leaving behind her husband Rick Diagle, reported the Sentinel and Enterprise. While taking inventory of his wife's possessions, Diagle came upon Call's Purple Heart. He soon discovered that his mother-in-law had been married to the deceased Army technician.
Diagle, a veteran himself, contacted the Vermont-based nonprofit Purple Hearts Reunited which returns lost or stolen military commendations to veterans or their surviving relatives. The organization put him in contact with distant relatives in Newport, New Hampshire and San Diego.
"This week's been quite a roller coaster ride. It's been almost 71 years since he died, but I'm almost reliving it – it's almost brand new to me," Mark Morris, a grandchild of Call's based in San Diego, said in an interview with the wire service. Morris' father, David Eugene, was taken to California when he was 8 and had few memories of Call. Eugene died in 2004. "I'm loving getting the medals but just finding out about all the family is awesome."
Diagle also reached out to Eugene Victor Call Jr., a 49 year-old truck driver in Newport. Call Jr. knew one of his great-uncles had died in World War II.
"I knew I was named after him, but other than that, nobody really said too much," he said.
Returning honor
Army National Guardsman and Purple Heart recipient Zachariah Fike founded Purple Hearts Reunited in July 2012, reported NPR. Fike started the organization after his mother gave him for Christmas a Purple Heart she had found in an antique shop. The name Corrado A.G. Piccoli was engraved on the back. Fike discovered that Piccoli had been killed in Europe during World War II and resolved to return the medal to his family.
The guardsman eventually tracked down Piccoli's sister Adeline Rockko in New Lisbon, New Jersey and returned the medal.
"We were very fortunate that you were the one who ended up with the Purple Heart," Rockko told Fike during a radio interview with NPR. "You're part of our family now."
Purple Hearts Reunited has returned service medals to over 200 veterans and family members.
When veterans enter their life after service, they trade the difficulties of military culture for those of the homefront. Among the charming wonders of civilian life are the headaches associated with trying to find a good place of employment. Plenty of veterans have found that, even after successful military careers, they continue to fire off resumes to no effect.
If that's the case, it's time to reassess your candidate profile and make some adjustments. While veterans are very much in-demand around the country, job competition remains pretty fierce, and that means a fine-tuned approach is called for if you're going to land a great position.
Here are some areas to consider:
Resume
Begin with the most obvious starting point. Since your resume is an employer's first opportunity to begin to know you, it's important that you make it as noteworthy as possible. That means you highlight your strengths, abilities and value to a particular company in clear, precise language. It also means that you don't rely too heavily on clichés. Make yourself stand out.
For example, rather than write that you're a "hard worker" with "leadership abilities," point to a specific time and place where those qualities were demonstrated. Did you lead a squad overseas? Run an office on base? What exact results did you achieve? These are the kinds of concrete details employers are looking for.
Cover letter
If your resume is a first look, than your cover letter is a first impression. Imagine you're speaking to an employer face-to-face for the first time. You'd want to impress them, right? That's what your cover letter is for. It's a small piece of your personality, a glimpse into who you are as both a worker and as an individual.
Remember that the human resources staffs at most companies are usually swamped with resumes and applications. Oftentimes they'll just read the first few paragraphs of a cover letter or summary before moving on to the next candidate. You can't just be another face in the crowd. Capture their attention from the get-go and refuse to let go of it.
Qualifications
Part of the difficulty veterans face is that civilian employers don't know how to put their skills to use.
"In my experience, companies have struggled to figure out how veterans fit in their own organizations," Mike Starich, a Marine and CEO of Orion ICS LLC, told NorthJersey.com. "Many companies are making an effort. I believe they have an obligation to help veterans find the best fit inside a company."
To help employers better understand your value to their business, take a close look at the job qualifications listed in the description. You may meet all of them, or you may not. Match up your abilities to those required as best as you can. A recruiter may be persuaded to hire you based on those qualifications you do have and train you on those you don't.
Networking
Don't get entirely bogged down in pursuit of a bulletproof resume and forget the other resources at your disposal, namely, other veterans. Many returning servicemembers have found jobs simply by talking to veterans who have been out on the job hunt before. The ground you're treading is familiar to them. Ask them for advice, to look over your resume, and possibly put you in contact with employers.
Talking to people and being engaged with your community is invaluable. Whether that's through volunteer work, sports leagues or group hobbies, it gets you speaking to a wider array of people who may be able to help you find work. Don't let these opportunities pass you by.
Many veterans find discussing their war experiences difficult. Perhaps writing about them instead could provide some relief. That's the hope of cowboy poet Vess Quinlan, who took advantage of last month's 32nd National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada to address a workshop of combat veterans and their families about sharing their stories.
Quinlan is not a veteran himself, The Associated Press reported, but poems received from Vietnam veterans – men who thought Quinlan could identify with their struggle based on his writings about fighting with polio – persuaded him to reach out to veterans in their life after service.
Getting veterans to trust him and begin an honest conversation is the workshop's biggest challenge, Quinlan told the AP.
"It takes an hour before people start understanding what we're doing and that we're not there to get anything from them," he said.
Bill Jones, a fellow cowboy poet and a Vietnam veteran who assists Quinlan with the workshops, said that the national attitude was not open to discussing the war after he returned home. In an atmosphere like that, it's no wonder veterans have difficulty talking about their experiences.
"When I came back it was best not to say anything," Jones told the AP. "It was best not to say you had been to Vietnam."
Attending one of Quinlan's workshops changed that for him.
"I wrote about a lot of my experiences over there," Jones said. "Combat is a very life-changing event. After you've been in combat you look at life a little bit differently."
Quinlan hopes to continue helping veterans find their voices. He told the Elko Daily Free Press that the workshops provided an opportunity to veterans to feel free to write about and explore their memories among fellow brothers and sisters who understand their situation better than anyone.
"Their purpose now [is] to tell a story, but it's the same brotherhood," he said.
On Jan. 30, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. saw hundreds of homeless and at-risk veterans arrive for the 22nd Annual Winterhaven Homeless Veterans Stand Down.
About 400 veterans pre-registered for the event, while a total of around 700 attended to receive medical treatment, employment help and other services, Gloria Hairston, the medical center's director of public affairs and community relations, told Pentagram, a military news organization in the D.C. metro area.
Counseling, medical screening, housing assistance and a number of other services were on offer from more than 70 local, state and federal agencies and organizations. There were also hundreds of new coats, boots, hygiene kits and other items provided, the source reported in another article.
Among the volunteers there to receive incoming veterans were eight active-duty Marines. Marine Cpl. Fernando Maldonado told Pentagram he was there to contribute whatever he could to those in need.
"I always believe in giving back to the community as much as I can," he said. "Today we're essentially here to meet-and-greet, talking to veterans, seeing how they're doing. We're helping them navigate everything that's going on today. It's a huge event, so we're just bringing cheer along the way, helping any way we can."
Maldonado admitted that the event held personal significance to him.
"It means a lot because they're the ones that came before us," he told Pentagram. "We'll take care of them just like the way they took care of us beforehand…so that sometime in the future maybe some people along the line will pay it forward for us as well. They're struggling, so why not try and give as much as we can, whether it's a smile, a meal, clothing. Whatever it is, we'll try to give it back to the best of our ability."