SAN DIEGO, July 25 (UPI) -- A California-based program created by a retired Marine general is helping U.S. military veterans find jobs, a broadcast report says.
Young military veterans are finding that the transition to civilian life can be rough, with unemployment among vets twice as high as for all 20- to 24-year-olds.
Retired Marine Major Gen. Matthew Caulfield is trying to fix that. His government-funded program, "Helmets to Hardhats," places veterans in construction jobs and has won commitments from 22 states that they will get preference.
"The problem is they can't network," Caulfield told CBS News. "How do you network from Iraq when you're trying to stay alive and keep your buddies alive? What our program is all about -- we do the networking."
What many veterans find when they leave the military is that their contemporaries have several years head start on them in the civilian world. They may also have gone to college or received training.
"When I go for a job, they look at me as being trained to shoot a weapon," said Eric Hickerson, who joined the Marines immediately after high school and left at age 24.
Hickerson is now working as a carpenter in San Diego, a job he got through "Helmets to Hardhats."
