Jobs for veterans? Sure, just not your rating or MOS.

Over the weekend I found — thanks to a computer search performed with the greatest of ease — my cousin Jesse. It was that “greatest of ease,” I told Jesse that it took to locate him when he asked how I found him, not that he was trying not to be found, he added. I told my cousin that I had worked a number of years as a reporter so such searches came fairly easy.

I last saw Jesse the night before a hometown friend and I caught a flight from what is now George Bush International Airport in Houston for O’Hare in Chicago. From there we later took a short bus ride to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, a.k.a. Navy boot camp.

The fact that I found Jesse is really neither here nor there  except for the fact that I am glad to have found my 63-year-old cousin, a veteran of the “Brown Water Navy” in Vietnam, and it appears he is happy that I got in touch as well. What makes me write about this was that he mentioned our previous Navy “ratings,” or jobs with respect to our communicating with each other. I was a Navy Yeoman or clerical type, Jesse was a gunner’s mate, meaning — surprise! — he took care of guns.

It occurred to me after the exchange of e-mails that I can’t think of many military veterans whose civilian jobs even remotely approximated their military ones. Oh, I did some journalism work in the Navy as well as having run an offset press. Neither jobs were really what you would call part of my job description. I probably knew more folks who were Seabees whom I served with who worked construction or engineering type trades once they got out of the Navy. Although, two good friends who were Seabees didn’t even come close to such jobs. One friend who saw the life I led as a firefighter when I went to college, became a firefighter once he graduated from college. Another Seabee friend re-upped and served as some kind of aviation electrician until he retired as a chief. Several other Seabee friends got out for awhile and re-enlisted for the long-term.

The list goes on and on. My Dad was a cook in the World War II Merchant Marine. After a number of jobs he finished life as a sign painter. One brother was a Navy ship fitter, what is now known as a Hull Maintenance Technician. He has had a decent career as a painting contractor. Another brother, who spent his last year in the Navy as a cargo handler in Vietnam, was a boatswain’s mate. He retired after more than 30 years as a police officer. My college friend Paul, in Tokyo, I can’t remember what he did in the Army. I’m sure he will tell me but it seems like his military occupational specialty (MOS) had something to so with working on weapons or tanks. The point is so many military jobs, no matter how much the military would like for the illusion to work, doesn’t translate to a “real” job. Naval line officers on board ship? Good leadership opportunities. But there just aren’t a whole lot of jobs available as an anti-submarine warfare officer.

The last stats I could find showed overall veterans unemployment slightly below the nation’s rate. However, the most recent statistics noted veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan had higher rates, more than 10 percent. I don’t know what to think when I see the top jobs the nation’s veterans agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs, is trying to fill and one of which is “Cemetery Caretaker.”

“How’s business Stan?”

“Pretty damned dead Harry.”

Since I left the military more than 30 years ago I have seen programs grow exponentially which attempt to link veterans with jobs. Many companies tout their veteran “friendliness,” decent companies trying to do the right thing such as Home Depot. Police and firefighter jobs are attractive to many veterans, as is corrections. Much has been done over time to link military and civilian occupations. The main problem though is that when the rubber meets the road and the cabbage hits the boiling water, the military is, after all, about defense, fighting wars, killing enemies.

Do I have a solution to the unemployment of veterans? Does a bear advertise for Charmin’ in the woods? Why it is easy. To reduce unemployment for those who just left the military, all you have to do is get them jobs. You find them jobs, other than the option of re-enlisting, and you have done something. Not that there is anything wrong with re-enlisting. Somebody’s got to do it.

I hope things will only get better. The federal government, state government, colleges, corporations all have plenty of  programs aimed at helping veterans. Now all those programs have to do is help veterans who aren’t the same ones hired to administer those programs. Then you got it licked.