Career change can be major challenge for transitioning soldiers

As part of a special report in February on the issue of veteran suicide, KRDO reported that transitioning out of the military can be one of the most challenging periods for a soldier.

The anxiety, loss of comradery, and financial concerns that often follow can lead to a downward spiral of negative thoughts, emotions, and self-destructive behavior.

One of the biggest components of that transition process is finding a new career outside the military.

At the Caliber Collision training center near Falcon, 12 to 13 new students arrive every 6 weeks.

“Changing Lanes” is a unique internship program, where servicemembers in their final 6 months of service are allowed to spend 4 days a week training to fix cars.

When they graduate, a job and a new set of tools are waiting for them.

“I’m going to have somewhere to go. I’m going to have income when I get out of the military,” said Jake Young, a student set to graduate in April and take a position at a Caliber Collision location in Colorado Springs.

Young, an intelligence analyst for the Army, is wrapping up his 8 years in the military.

Fellow student, Ana Lopez, is wrapping up her 4 years.

She plans to take a similar position at a location in California.

Both told KRDO that finding a career in the civilian world was their top source of stress and anxiety, after deciding not to re-enlist.

“I was nervous,” recalls Lopez, “I was thinking what was I going to do? How was I going to support my family?”

Adam Baker is a Peer Navigator at Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center, and recalls his own similar thoughts.

“You gotta have money to put food on the table and a roof over your head,” he said.

Baker now helps transitioning veterans at Mt. Carmel, a nonprofit that provides a variety of career and wellness services, job fairs, classes, and counseling for veterans.

He admits that he struggled with his own transition.

“A lot of times, people in the military live in a pipe dream, where everything is going to be great,” he says, “‘The grass is greener on the other side of the fence.’ You hear that term a lot. But not expecting and not knowing what is really coming and what to expect, that is one of the biggest things I had an issue with when I was in the military.”

In 2011, with a large number of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, veteran unemployment spiked to 7.7%.

That same year, Congress passed the Vow Act.

Among other things, it required all servicemembers leaving the military to attend a 3-day career counseling workshop and other classes.

The Department of Defense has also partnered with companies like Caliber Collision, and offered tax breaks for the hiring of veterans.

As a result of those actions, the veteran unemployment rate in January of this year was just 3.9%.

Sherry Jenkins is the Transition Services Manager at Fort Carson.

The Transition Assistantance Program (TAP) handles roughly 450 departing soldiers every month.

Jenkins says the program has come a long way since 2011.

“It’s amazing, the amount of programs and opportunities that we have for our transitioning servicemembers these days, compared to what they were even just a few years back,” she says.

According to Jenkins, 177 companies have partnered with the Army to create training programs over the last six years, and 9 out of 10 soldiers who participate walk away with a job.

Every soldier KRDO spoke with at Fort Carson believes the military does offer enough resources to get them back into the civilian workforce.

“They help you everywhere from resumes to the hiring process, interviews, how to prepare. They even give you clothes for interviews, free of charge, so they’re definitely doing a lot,” explains Infantry Squad Leader Matthew Henry.

However, servicemembers aren’t required to take advantage of resources beyond the required classes.

For example, the military recommends they begin their career transition process at least a full year before they leave, but a 2017 study by the Government Accountability Office found 53% of them didn’t complete the TAP program until they had less than 90 days to go.

The reality that some of them will slip through the cracks after not taking utilizing those resources worries soldiers like Young and Lopez.

“There were a fair amount of soldiers in my class that didn’t take the program very seriously. They were just to check the box, and I don’t think they really understand that this program is there to help us, to help us transition out,” says Young.

“They are just so excited about getting out that they don’t plan their future. At one point, they’re not going to have anything to do for themselves, and they end up doing things they shouldn’t be doing,” adds Lopez.

Those “things” could lead to substance abuse, depression, and in extreme cases, taking their own lives.

The most recent data from the federal government suggests 20 veterans a day commit suicide.

Providing all of this career assistance at Fort Carson, and giving companies all those tax breaks, comes at a signifant cost to the Department of Defense.

However, paying unemployment benefits to thousands of unemployed servicemembers is also expensive.

That expense is down 70 percent in the last 8 years, according to Jenkins, thank in large part to the variety of resources offered through the TAP program and other services.