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| News > ‘Earl of ESGR’: A dedicated volunteer is honored with a national award |
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Earl Bonett is the 2011 National Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Military Outreach Volunteer of the Year. (U.S. Air Force photo/2nd Lt. Andre Bowser)
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'Earl of ESGR' volunteer gets national award
Posted 9/21/2012 Updated 9/21/2012
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by 2nd Lt. Andre Bowser
439th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
9/21/2012 - WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass. -- For 12 years, Earl Bonett has put the needs of veterans before his own.
For this and other reasons, he has been named the 2011 National Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Military Outreach Volunteer of the Year.
All titles aside, he just likes to be called Earl of ESGR.
After retiring from the U.S. Postal Service, Bonett returned to his military roots by volunteering with ESGR, a national organization that supports reservists and guardsmen.
Bonett served for four years "during the 60s in the Destroyer Navy" as radioman crypto technician. After he left the service, he went home to Monson, Mass., and attended the American International College in Springfield, Mass., where he earned a bachelor's degree in English.
Bonett taught high school for eight years before he took a job with the Postal Service. After retiring from that career, he worked as a youth counselor before becoming heavily involved in volunteer programs such as ESGR.
The 68-year-old retired postmaster of Holyoke became an ESGR volunteer after one of his employees, an Air Force reservist, invited him on a Bosslift flight. These Air Force and ESGR-sponsored trips and other events show employers how their employees/reservists contribute to the Air Force mission.
"I was amazed that all the pilots and aircrew were reservists," Bonett said. "I said to myself I'd like to get involved in this."
Bonett has served as ESGR's state vice chairman, Western Massachusetts chairman, acting ombudsman director and ombudsman director.
Although he was in the Navy for only four years, he has a warm place for veterans. He was stationed in Newport, R.I., aboard a destroyer but kept close to his family in Massachusetts, taking advantage of his mother's generous nature almost every weekend.
"I would bring eight, nine, 10 guys home with me every weekend, and my mother would make each of them a favorite food," he said of his mother who worked as a mechanic for the military, as well as a professional chef.
Bonett said the worst part about being on a Navy destroyer was the sterilized milk.
"All you could taste was the metal, but I drank it anyway."
Bonett taught high school for eight years before he took a job with the Postal Service. After retiring from that career, he worked as a youth counselor before becoming heavily involved in volunteer programs such as ESGR.
Bonett said part of the impetus for volunteering, besides returning to his military roots, was the "raw deal" Vietnam veterans got from the public when they returned to civilian life.
"It was different back then," he recalls. "People weren't as supportive as they are today of the military."
Bonett said he decided to be a part of a solution he envisioned to help make the bond between the military and the public stronger.
He has helped reservists and guardsmen avoid issues at their places of work by educating the service members and their employers.
"The only part of ESGR that is reactive versus proactive is going to places of employment and smoothing out relationships between reservists and their employers," Bonett said.
Otherwise, he said he's out engaging military members across the state within his area of responsibility - or Western Massachusetts - and sometimes beyond.
The difficult part for him is when reservists in challenging situations continue to feel the pinch of poor workplace relations.
"We explain the law to reservists and highlight the law that applies to their specific circumstance," he said. "The next step is a formal case after the employer has been informed of an issue or violation of reservist's rights."
In his experience, ESGR cases often involve reservists who leave on deployments and return to find their civilian positions marginalized. If that happens, ESGR steps in and informs reservists and employers of the law in the hope that it ends there.
Bonett said he's found outreach, before a problem arises, to be a much better road to travel.
To that end, he pushes reservists to nominate supportive bosses, employers and places of employment for Patriot Awards, by contacting his office.
Bonett's zeal for military outreach and his proactive posture for seeking out supportive employers are precisely what netted him the distinction of the national military outreach volunteerism award. And the field of competition was no small swath, with more than 4,500 people in ESGR.
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