1. Many veterans bring a more sophisticated cultural awareness to the workplace, said Mike Denning | 2. Veterans, by their training, know what it means to both lead and to follow, said Dean Vakas. | 3. Rolland Dessert said confidence was a key factor in successful transition to civilian employment. | 4. Once on the job, said John Baeuchle, veterans are quickly able to demonstrate skills that demonstrate their value as employees.

Veterans, however, especially officers, tend to be Type-A personalities, added Rothbrust. “So part of being successful coming out of the military and going into the private sector is for the individual to understand that there is a certain element of humility involved.” As Brett Rosene added, that also meant making officers aware that they cannot walk into a job situation and expect to make salary demands.

John Baeuchle, of Armed Forces Bank, observed that some veterans initially lacked confidence that they could adjust to civilian life. In his experience, however, he has found that, once given the opportunity to learn on-the-job skills, the military training that veterans have had makes them good employees. The trick is instilling in them the confidence that they can succeed.

Rolland Dessert, a retired colonel who works with the Center for Transitional Leadership, agreed that confidence was an issue. Veterans, he said, know an awful lot that can translate well into the work force, but their challenge is to “be able to share that understanding about what their talents are, their leadership skills, their teamwork skills, their character structure, and the discipline they are used to. So many things do translate, but it’s a matter of bringing those two understandings together and trying to envision where they could go.”

“I think it’s a great opportunity for business to capitalize on lives well-led in the military with education, training and experience,” said Bob Ulin. “A company would do well to bring [these veterans] on board and then help them learn the skills of that business so that they can contribute to the nation and the development of business.”

Brett Rosene explained that there were opportunities for entrepreneurial training that were not before available. For instance, Fort Leavenworth is the first military installation to bring the Kauffman Foundation FastTrac program onto base. Bob Ulin called it a “wonderful program to get people to understand if they want to become an entrepreneur.”


The Kansas City Factor

Paul Holewinski questioned whether the current infrastructure of local programs—federal, state, and nonprofit—was sufficient to provide a cohesive resource for veterans finding their way back to civilian work life.

Mike Hockley noted that the local United Way, for which he served as chair a few years back, has been reaching out to different organizations that provide support for veterans to create a one-stop-shopping point of entry—“a difficult task,” Hockley conceded. “The big difficulty for the veterans is to know how to access it,” he said. “There are a lot of support organizations out there that are trying to help veterans, but veterans don’t know how to reach out to them.”

“We spend a lot of time chasing other cities, like Denver, Boston or Austin,” said Erik Bergrud, “but I think it’s a great opportunity if we decide we want to be the veteran community of America.” The fact that Kansas City has a Marine as mayor in the person of Sly James, said Bergrud, makes this all the more natural a positioning strategy.

Bob Ulin agreed. Pointing to the Mid-America Regional Council as an example, Ulin suggested that if civic leaders organized something bi-state that focused on veterans, something that HR directors and veterans could plug into, it could have real potential. To succeed, said Ulin, it would have to be “very well organized.”

An additional challenge, said Erik Bergrud, is to find the appropriate person or agency to “champion the idea.” Mike Denning thought the idea of branding the city as a veteran-friendly had real merit, but he too questioned where the leadership would come from.