Wounded Warriors Program Helps Veterans Get Jobs

PERRYVILLE, Md. (AP) -- When Larry Perry came home from Iraq, there were a lot of questions about what kind of future the 24-year-old Navy corpsman would have.

A victim of an October 2006 improvised explosive device attack in Haditha, Iraq, Perry returned stateside with a broken back, broken arm, broken ribs, a fractured left kneecap as well as a multitude of burns, cuts and abrasions.

But he fought through 30 surgeries to recover.

While his medical care after returning home was excellent, he said, he was discouraged about his employment opportunities and bounced around a few jobs following his retirement from the U.S. Navy in March 2010.

Now the 29-year-old Perryville-native has a clerical position with the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The job comes thanks to the help of a relatively new branch of the U.S. Army Wounded Warriors program.

"I probably applied for 10 positions with Veterans Affairs and about 80 different positions with APG and Edgewood without hearing back," he said.

After speaking with a representative with the Wounded Warriors expedited referral process in December 2010, however, Perry was offered a job at APG in just a few weeks.

"They actually offered it to me on Jan. 4, my birthday," he said.

Since 2008, the Wounded Warriors program has worked to get disabled veterans from all military branches jobs within the federal government, said Cindy Sepulveda of the U.S. Army Civilian Human Resources Agency.

Veterans have to receive an Army Physical Disability Evaluation System rating of 30 percent or greater in one or more specific categories such as blindness, deafness, loss of limb, severe burns, paralysis or traumatic brain injury among other conditions in order to qualify for the program.

Through the expedited referral process, the program has been able to place 72 severely disabled veterans at installations worldwide with two at Aberdeen, she added.

Teresa Manganaro, a recruiter for U.S. Army Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance program, said Wounded Warrior resumes are reviewed for qualifications as they are put into the system, apart from the thousands of other applications filed by the public.

The hiring process in an Army program typically takes between four and six months, but a Wounded Warriors hiring could be made in the matter of a few weeks, Manganaro said.

While there are no guarantees of employment, a disabled veteran could be at advantage in the program because it is not competitive.

"Our program basically leverages a veteran's resume with the hiring managers in a geographic area that an applicant wants to work in," Sepulveda said. "That way their applications are seen apart from the general population application pool."

For Tyrone Johnson, CECOM's Command sergeant major, hiring servicemen and women who have experienced combat is an invaluable process.

"We can better support the war fighter out in the field (with experienced employees)," he said. "(We can consult them), so that we know what we say and do here actually works."

Kelly Luster, a public affairs officer for CECOM who recently returned from a tour of Iraq, said the work CECOM does is vital - even if it doesn't always seem that way.

"As small and insignificant as something like a helmet clip may seem, for someone who has been in the field it is invaluable," Luster said. "It can be the difference between life and death."

Cecil Whig
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)