Veterans often find jobs serving the community

[unhappycamper]

http://kdhnews.com/business/veterans-often-find-jobs-serving-the-community/article_31a85178-95c8-11e3-8645-001a4bcf6878.html



Lt. Michael Shepherd, of the Harker Heights FIre Department, dons his gear Thursday at the fire station. While still on active duty, the former soldier took a course to become certified as an emergency medical technician. After his discharge from the Army and finishing the course, Shepherd quickly landed a job. EMT made a list of the top 10 best civilian jobs for veterans.

Veterans often find jobs serving the community
Mason W. Canales | Herald staff writer
Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2014 4:30 am

Working 24-hour shifts is the norm for EMT and Army veteran Michael Shepherd, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Serving his local community through the Harker Heights Fire Department is where he wants to be.

“I knew when I was getting out (of the Army), this was the job I wanted to do,” Shepherd said. “As corny as it sounds, I am following my childhood dream. My stepfather was a firefighter in the Air Force, and I admired his work.”

Shepherd enlisted in the Army after he graduated from high school. He hoped for a firefighter military occupational specialty, but that field was overcrowded when he enlisted; his recruiter talked him into another job.

[jwirr]

1. I hope this continues. However I think we are in for some trouble when it comes to military trained

police forces. Our communities should not be compared to battle grounds.

It worries me that so many stories here on DU are about shooting innocents and disabled persons and other forms of misuse of their power. I think we need to look into the training the officers in these stories had. Are they vets who may be suffering from after effects of years in the battle field?

My uncle was walking in the woods with my dad. Dad gave and old gunny sack a kick to get it out of their way. My uncle hit the dirt in a natural reaction of a man who has been trained to look out for land mines.

I think we need a program that allows for retraining veterans for the community. They are not at war any longer.

[Victor_c3]

2. I'm not sure if it is even possible to really retrain vets for the community

Given that a lot of the reactions that vets have that could be troublesome could be related to PTSD or other (currently) incurable psychiatric conditions, there isn't much that can be done. So many of the reactions that have been brought about through training are further reinforced through real life and death situations.

Yes, intellectually I know I'm not in a war anymore but for the handful of seconds that follow a given triggering event, you'd have a hard time trying to convince me otherwise. A triggering event could be as innocent as seeing trash on the side of the road to seeing a child with bloody knees at a park crying in his mother's arms after a fall to the sulfur smell of fireworks thrown by kids. For me, a cart that I push around every once in a while at work sounds just like the track pads of my Bradley Fighting Vehicle hitting the pavement when I was on patrol and it'll put me on edge all day. Then there are the triggers that you hallucinate. How do you not react to something that you are absolutely convinced is there?

Yes, I too am troubled by the militarization of our police forces, but I'm not sure how much of that is due to the fact that a portion of our police forces have served in combat. I'm not going to get into that conversation now, but I found a lot of interesting reads when I googled "militarization of police" that points to other reasons.

I'm sorry if it seems like I'm snapping at you in any way, but as a veteran with a moderately-severe case of PTSD and who has been going to therapy off and on for years your last line really caught my attention.

[jwirr]

3. Thank you for this. It is educational and you are not snapping. This gives a very clear picture of

what happens. Thanks also for the suggestion about googling - I will do that. I am aware that many of the problems are not so much our young vets. Some are by older police who are acting out to stereo types.

Take care. As a bit of hope, I had a friend who came home from Vietnam and barricaded himself into his home in the country. My brother was the only one who could get into him. We finally got him the help he needed and he is doing much better now. Therapy can help.