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WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2005 – "Hiring a veteran is not good will, it's just good business," the chairman of the President's National Hire Veterans Committee said here Nov. 17.
T.P. O'Mahoney made his comments on the committee's strategy of marketing veterans as highly desirable employees during the group's quarterly meeting. "(Veterans) are reliable," O'Mahoney said. "They understand discipline, they show up on time, they're drug free." O'Mahoney said the committee achieved its goal of reaching out to 1 million employers and encouraging them to hire veterans. It's also well on its way to meeting the goal of reaching 2 million veterans. This has been accomplished through advertisements and articles in national and trade magazines, as well as posters promoting the HireVetsFirst initiative. World War II veteran and former Sen. Bob Dole has recorded a public service announcement for the organization that encourages businesses to consider hiring veterans. And businesses are listening. "Home Depot ... hired 20,000 veterans (during) this last year," O'Mahoney said in offering an example of a businesses giving veterans a hiring preference. And he said Mac Tools company has also provided an injured veteran with a chest of tools and has pledged to make similar donations quarterly. The company also is in the process of hiring veterans as well as giving a distributorship to one eligible vet. The Hire Veterans committee is focusing on injured veterans as well as involvement with a program called Recovery and Employment Assistance Lifelines. REALifelines reaches out to help disabled veterans find suitable work, O'Mahoney said. HireVetsFirst is looking to reach out to high job-growth industries and is even employing the help of the nation's governors. More than 40 governors have already designated a "Hire Veteran" month, O'Mahoney said. The committee is working to see that all states and U.S. territories have similar initiatives. These endeavors, and everything else the organization does, including taking part in job fairs, move the committee closer to its ultimate goal. "What we want is every veteran who wants to work has an opportunity to have a good job," he said. "That's our ultimate goal."
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