CRI Gives Veterans a Fighting Chance

AS U.S. MILITARY involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan winds down, thousands of troops are returning home to a job market that’s been painfully slow to recover from the recession.

About 248,000 veterans recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan were looking for work in December, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 210,000 in December 2010. Another 33,000 U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan this year, President Obama has said.

In December, the national unemployment rate for veterans whose active duty began September 2001 or later was 13.1 percent, compared to the overall national rate of 8.5 percent.

John Dillard, who served in the Vietnam War, advocates hiring veterans and providing greater opportunity for veteran-owned businesses.

At Central Research Inc., the company he and son Scott founded in 1999 and later moved to Lowell, about 60 percent of the 65 employees are either veterans or married to a veteran, John Dillard said. Many of those veterans are, like Dillard, disabled as a result of their service.

Hiring veterans has many benefits, he tells other business owners.

“Veterans have already proved their reliability and maturity,” he said. “In my opinion, they’re more responsible than the average person who might be 20 to 25 years old.

“They worked under pressure we can only imagine. They’ve learned how to be a team member.”

CRI was founded with the single goal of employing veterans, especially those who are service-disabled. The company provides support services as a contractor and subcontractor to state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Education and Treasury departments.

CRI employee Cody Villar, 34, found the company in 2007 through the Arkansas Workforce Development Commission.

Villar spent a year in Afghanistan with the National Guard, working on a human intelligence team collecting information about the Taliban and Al Qaida. When he returned to civilian life in July 2005, “finding work wasn’t easy,” he said.

So Villar used his G.I. Bill benefits to finish a degree in criminal justice at the University of Arkansas. As he got close to graduating in early 2007, he was again worried about finding a job.

Through the AWDC’s resources for veterans, he found a part-time job at CRI, and after graduating, he was offered a full-time position.

Today, Villar is the company’s IT manager, security manager, health and safety compliance manager and security officer. He has also earned a master’s in information systems.

Villar’s advice to returning veterans entering the job market is, first, to be patient.
  Second, he said, “learn to speak ‘civilian.’”

That means learning to translate the skills gained in the military into a resume that civilian employers can understand.

Iraq veteran Tina Murray, who started at CRI just a few weeks ago as a collections agent, also struggled in the civilian job market.

Murray, a single mother of two, joined the Army National Guard to get help paying for college. She had carpentry and masonry experience, and learned to operate heavy equipment in the service.

Although her unit was deployed for 14 months, she had to return home after six months due to a family emergency. She then worked in construction until the recession hit.

After two years on unemployment, she found CRI online, and said the company is very supportive of its employees.

Murray advises other veterans looking for work to just hang in there.

“They shouldn’t give up,” she said. “They should keep trying.”

Besides actively recruiting veterans, Dillard also supports those who own businesses by working to increase their opportunities.

In 2011, he was the leading force behind the Arkansas Legislature’s passage of two bills designed to aid veteran-owned businesses. Gov. Beebe signed both into law last April.

Arkansas Act 882 requires state agencies to set aside 5 percent of their contract dollars for service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses.

“That’s more than any other state in the nation,” Dillard said.

The other bill, which became Arkansas Act 893, added service-disabled veterans to the list of those who may participate in the Minority Business Enterprise program. MBE certification lets companies bid on and get preferential consideration for state contracts.

The U.S. Small Business Administration named CRI the 2011 Arkansas Minority Business of the Year. This year, the firm has been nominated for the SBA’s Veterans Small Business Champion award.