Defense contractors make hiring veterans a priority

After Chris Ayres retired from the military, he was skeptical that potential employers would understand his experience or skills.

A former Marine, Ayres had suffered severe injuries in Fallujah: A rocket-propelled grenade inflicted nerve damage, burns, partial blindness and traumatic brain injury. Ayres, who also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, worked with military recruiting firms, but they didn’t seem to understand how to handle his atypical resume.

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But Ayres impressed a Northrop Grumman executive with a speech he gave on Capitol Hill, and, through a Northrop program geared toward hiring severely wounded veterans, Ayres was brought on as a subject matter expert in the firm’s health information technology group.

Operation IMPACT, as the Northrop program is called, has hired about 85 veterans since its inception in 2004, most of them within the last three years. It’s among multiple veteran-focused hiring initiatives run by area defense contractors who say they want to support former service members and access the skills and values taught in the military. Though the programs represent only a small portion of the contractors’ hiring, the efforts appear to be growing.

McLean-based Booz Allen Hamilton, for instance, announced recently it would participate in the Army Partnership for Youth Success program, meant to connect retired soldiers with major corporations. Fairfax-based SRA International launched a program in January to help injured veterans find new careers with the company.

Northrop launched its effort in 2004 but ramped up in 2008 when it employed a full-time placement specialist to market the program’s candidates across the company. Karen Stang, one of four employees who work on the program, walks candidates through the job application process and makes sure their resumes get priority treatment.

About half of the Operation IMPACT hires were selected for existing jobs, but about half were hired for jobs created for them, according to Stang. If Northrop doesn’t have an appropriate position, it directs candidates to other companies, such as Lockheed Martin, or Pentagon agencies.

The program is meant to help ease the transition from military to contractor, which can be a struggle. Lindsay Valenti, a retired Marine, left Iraq early when her husband, also a deployed Marine in Iraq, was severely injured in 2007 . He had suffered a traumatic brain injury, and they both had post-traumatic stress disorder.

Yet, by early 2009, Valenti’s husband was hired at Northrop, and Valenti herself had a job with the company in mid-2010. A logistics planner, Valenti said Northrop has made many accommodations, from being lenient about doctors’ appointments to providing a laptop so she can work from home when she’s uncomfortable driving.

BAE Systems, which bases its U.S. operations in Arlington, is also focusing on recruiting veterans. BAE enticed Abby Conlin, a former Air Force officer, with a job that applies the skills she used while deployed in Iraq.

An employee since October, she said most of her coworkers are retired members of the military.

Conlin said working for a defense contractor, as opposed to a commercial business, helps her feel connected to the work she did in Iraq — but gives her freedoms she didn’t have in the military.

“I’m still in the mission, I’m still in the fight,” said Conlin. “But I can dress up like a girl.”