Photo By Brandon Hubbard | Karen Perkins, human resources director of U.S. Army Installation Management Command,...... read more read more
SAN ANTONIO — The flag is folded 12 times. Ray Rodrigiez smooths the fabric, turning the material until it becomes a blue triangle with white stars on all sides – a tri-cornered reflection of the first Colonial Soldiers.
In the basement of 519 North Medina Street in San Antonio, Texas, a small team of workers is filling packages with carefully placed items – the U.S. flag, a pin and decal – to recognize separating and retiring service members.
Rodriquez has worked at the center for the past year, filling packages and folding flags. A nearby cart with dozens of flags sits ready to be loaded into the familiar Army-black boxes with the gold lettering.
“I take pride in what I do,” said Rodriguez, whose wife is a veteran.
The Army has contracted 28,000 Army Retiring Soldier Commendation Program Packages to be made in the next year, under a contract with the nonprofit Veteran’s Enterprises of Texas (VETS), sub-corporation of the American GI Forum National Veterans Outreach Program, Inc. Each pin is embossed with the words “Soldier for Life” and adds the word “Retired” for those who have completed a full military career.
The packages are part of a new way the Army is thinking about its war fighters under a new campaign called Soldier for Life, a push to cultivate a sense of accomplishment and community among Soldiers.
“It is a way of life,” said Karen Perkins, director of human resources for U.S. Army Installation Management Command based at Fort Sam Houston, who toured the assembly location February 24 for the first time. “It is about a Soldier lifecycle that starts when a person decides to join the Army and goes all the way through beyond retirement. It is about being a Soldier for Life from Day 1 and ultimately preparing themselves for transition at the end of their first tour or the end of a 30-year career.”
Contracting the VETS nonprofit additionally benefits the local San Antonio homeless veteran population.
The building, where the packages are being made, is also an American GI Forum National Veterans Outreach Program Residential Center for veterans. At any given time, as many as 140 disabled veterans can live at the center. The package-making contract represents potential on-site jobs for disabled veterans at the center and surrounding area.
Perkins said the partnership is part of what makes San Antonio earn its moniker as “Military City U.S.A.”
“Until you start to put the pieces together with the nonprofits, you don’t have any idea what people are really doing,” she said.
To some, Perkin says, the building might seem like another large structure, but it is really an innovative network driven by the “passion of a few people” to care for retiring veterans, as well as those vets who are homeless and disabled.
San Antonio has about 23,000 homeless residents and between 20-25 percent has served in the military, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Conference of Mayors.
Van L. Mitchell, American GI Forum NVOP senior director for business and housing operations, says the VETS contract to create the Soldier for Life packages represents way for disabled veterans to earn a“living wage” and a unique job opportunity.
“We don’t pay them minimum wage like lots of programs do,” said Mitchell, a retired sergeant major who served in the Army for 26 years, and joined the nonprofit in 2010. “We think they should have a life and be able to work just like everyone else, as well as providing them services and treating them with dignity and respect.”
Up to eight employees can work on the program at a time. The VETS nonprofit employs 50 disabled veterans and non-veterans across all of its programs, putting to work people with challenges like bipolar, post-traumatic stress disorder and physical limitations.
Sgt. Maj. Lon Culbreath, of U.S. Army Installation Management Command, said sometimes Soldiers take things like retirement flags for granted when when they have not watched what it takes for every Soldier to get one.
Touring the facility, Culbreath said seeing the operation personally puts faces and names to the large operation and homeless veteran community in San Antonio.
“It recharges your batteries to be involved and come out here,” Culbreath said.
The sergeant major said often veterans are proud about accepting help or admitting they have fallen on hard times.
“But, we’re a family,” he said. “As we go forward with this Soldier for Life mantra, it has got to be more than words: It has to be something we stand by.”
| Date Taken: | 02.24.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 03.03.2016 13:41 |
| Story ID: | 190997 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 733 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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