Keeping It Quiet

The sign on our local gas station/convenience store says “Thank You, Veterans.”

This seems ironic - outside the business world veterans can be thanked, but inside the business world, veterans are supposed to keep their veteran status quiet.

An employer should not be asking for your veteran status, especially during a job interview…the same way they should not be asking for your age or your religion.  By law, a company cannot discriminate on the basis of age, cannot discriminate on the basis of religion, and cannot discriminate on the basis of veteran status.

My employer did not ask me if I was a veteran during my job interview.  But they did ask me after I was hired.  Revealing the status is voluntary, and the list of veterans in the company is kept confidential.

I decided to tell the company that I was a veteran.  I wondered how many people around me were also veterans, so I decided to write an article for the company newsletter.

To solicit requests for veterans’ stories, I could not look at the confidential list; Human Resources had to send out a request for me: if you are willing, please tell me about your military service.

The responses were eye-opening.  Maybe only veterans with eye-opening experiences wanted to be in the company newsletter, but it did make for a good article.

One guy survived the 1967 fire onboard the USS Forrestal.

One guy, after 64 weeks of intensive Russian language training, was stationed in Scotland to intercept Soviet submarine communications.

One guy was a Nuclear Weapons Officer.

One guy surveyed roads in Vietnam.

One guy was a helicopter pilot who helped rescue a crew of Apollo astronauts in the Pacific Ocean.

One guy ran an airfield in Kosovo.

One guy talked about how he couldn’t wait to get out of the military, but looking back he realizes that the military taught him teamwork, and how to do things he didn’t want to do, and how to treat others the way he wanted to be treated.

Walking around the office, I see that these guys, just like me, have blended into the company just fine.  It seems odd that we are supposed to keep our veteran status quiet.

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Veterans Day: it is time to remember the people who never lived to tell their stories to a company newsletter.  Here is a 3-minute video of “Lullaby For A Soldier (In The Arms Of The Angels)", a song written by Dillon O’Brian.  It is sung by Maggie Siff during an episode of Sons Of Anarchy.  Maggie’s photo is the first one you see, followed by photos of the other cast members:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmucVmr60HQ

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com