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Story and photo by Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
LTG Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, meets with labor leaders in Orlando, Fla.
The chief of the National Guard Bureau recently encouraged organizations in the construction industry to continue their support to troops waging the global war on terrorism.
“We need to make sure that we reach out to the new group of veterans and to the new group of service members who are out there in this all-volunteer force, willing to put their lives, their educations, their families, their jobs, their careers and their fortunes on the line to defend America,” LTG H. Steven Blum told some of America's most influential labor leaders during a recent meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Blum addressed the leaders of “Helmets to Hardhats,” a national, federally funded program that provides access to the best jobs in the construction industry for Soldiers leaving active military service, and for Reservists and National Guard members.
Blum also pledged the Guard Bureau's support for the national program, as well as for such similar state programs as Florida's “Hire a Hero.”
Helmets to Hardhats, based in San Diego, Calif., is beginning its third year. It has started a new program, Hardhats to Helmets, to entice construction workers to join the Guard and Reserve, said retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Matthew Caulfield, one of the organizers of Helmets to Hardhats.
People can learn more about the program and register online at www.helmetstohardhats.org .
The program, which is forging an affiliation with the military and the construction industry, is long overdue and makes sense for a couple of reasons, Blum said.
It provides union jobs to people who have acquired skills in the military that are needed by the construction industry, such as welding, demolitions and heavy-equipment operations.
“You are opening doors that would otherwise not be open to these people,” Blum told leaders of the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department.
The job initiative also brings together two factions that have built this country, Blum said.
“Together, the military and the construction trades have built America over the past several hundred years with the same kind of sweat, equity, commitment and courage,” he said.
Blum praised construction workers for digging in to save many lives after terrorists struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
“National Guard members are active participants in Helmets to Hardhats, because they are on hand immediately, as opposed to transitioning at some future date, and because they reside close to job sites and usually don't have to relocate,” Caulfield said.
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“No other industry in the United States has ever made a total commitment to support the armed forces by providing access to the best jobs, as in construction,” he added. “No other industry has offered to assist in recruiting by educating its members on the benefits of joining the National Guard.”
Furthermore, Caulfield said, the Department of Veteran's Affairs Office of Vocational Rehabilitation is working with Helmets to Hardhats to provide access to construction jobs for veterans with disabilities.
Mere words cannot express our gratitude for the program you have established to provide war-wounded veterans access to jobs in the construction industry,” Blum told the AFL-CIO leaders. “I know it will be another success which will be a credit to you and your industry.”
Although it's not a construction job, Florida Army Guard SPC Henry St. Charles said he got his cellular telephone job because he registered with Florida's Hire a Hero program after completing his initial chemical-operations training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
He is said to be the first Florida Guard member to be hired through that program.
“I was looking for a job while I'm going to college,” said St. Charles, who is studying business management at the University of South Florida. He was hired two weeks after he applied for a job. “I'm a retention representative. I try to talk people out of discontinuing their telephone service,” he said.
“My supervisor told me he selected me because I'm a Guard member,” St. Charles added, “and because he wanted someone who is reliable.”
© 2005 Soldiers Magazine. All rights reserved. |
