"If you have a security clearance, you are miles ahead of a person applying to a company without a security clearance," said Edward F. Lawton, head of the Washington area chapter of the American Military Retirees Association. "And even if you're missing a limb, that doesn't mean you're incapable of supporting the military through a company."
But it may mean that jobs are more readily available for soldiers with technical skills and for those willing to work in the Washington area, where many government contractors are based.
"Veterans are getting good jobs right now," says Army Capt. Lonnie Moore, who lost his leg last year. Sgt. Robert Faulk, a physical therapy assistant, helps with his recovery.
(Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
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That proved to be the case for Brian Garvey, an Army Captain who met his future employer at the Walter Reed career fair.
The platoon leader and father of two young girls was deployed to Iraq last March and for months worked at the Baghdad airport, processing human resources files for soldiers stationed throughout that country.
On Sept. 18, Garvey's unit was assigned a different task -- to show a contractor a damaged fence on a highway bridge between the airport and the heavily guarded Green Zone. After assessing the damage, Garvey had just given the signal for his soldiers to return to their vehicles when a suicide bomber drove a car onto the bridge and detonated an explosive -- killing two of the crew and wounding 13.
Three days later Garvey was at Walter Reed, recovering from a series of surgeries to repair his hand and remove dozens of pieces of shrapnel from his skin.
"I would say a lot of the time was spent thinking 'What am I going to do? What is the best avenue for my family,'" Garvey recalled of his four-month stay at the hospital. "Up to this point I had been somewhat selfish. It was what I wanted to do. My wife and kids had been making the sacrifices."
Garvey had already been thinking about looking for a private-sector job when he stopped by the career fair, hoping to pick up a few business cards and some ideas. Like most of the 150 soldiers crammed into the hall, Garvey was without a résumé or firm career goals.
He grabbed brochures from such big contractors as Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co., but spent the longest time talking to a representative from Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK), a Minnesota company that makes weapon systems and munitions. He filled out a card with his basic information and three days later got an e-mail from ATK, asking for a phone interview.
A day-long interview at the company's Elkton, Md., site followed; just before Christmas, Garvey was offered a job. Soon he'll become a program manager at ATK, acting as a liaison between the company's engineers and its primary client -- the U.S. military.
"Mentally it does me a lot of good, knowing that I'm not out there searching frantically for a job," said Garvey, who is now back at Fort Hood, waiting for his unit to rotate back from Iraq in March before he will be discharged. "It gives me a sense of security. I know what my future has to offer."
That sense of the future is what a lot of recently wounded soldiers are looking for, said Lehowicz, the VA vocational counselor. When they first return from the battlefield, many focus solely on getting better to return to their unit, she said, but over time they often start thinking about other options.
Moore, the Army Captain, says thoughts of his future now absorb much of his day at Walter Reed. Some days he thinks he would like to stay in the military, to resume life with his friends and become an example for other amputees. But some of the job offers have topped $70,000 and he worries this opportunity may not come around again.
"Veterans are getting good jobs right now," said Moore, who will likely remain in the hospital through March. He recently had a second interview with FNH USA, where he is up for a position as deputy director of military operations.
"I'm not sure if I stay in [the Army] for another five years, if the jobs will still be here."
