Retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Wesley Hamm gained marketability through an OWF internship with USACE at Fort Hood. A back injury that fused his lower lumbar landed him in the base’s WTU. While awaiting the results of the Army’s Medical Board process to determine whether he would transition out of the service, Hamm contacted Burgin. Based on his résumé and prior construction experience, Burgin put the soldier in touch with Daniel Juracek, a safety occupational health specialist in USACE’s Fort Worth District.
“I was all for it,” Hamm said. “It sounded like a great opportunity. It turned out to be an awesome opportunity.”
Initially shadowing Juracek and familiarizing himself with the manual outlining USACE safety guidelines, Hamm toured all of the 25 active USACE projects under way at Fort Hood. The pair visited two to three job sites a day, conducting safety inspections and walk-throughs. Hamm learned the process of reviewing contractors’ safety policies, submitting safety compliance paperwork, and adding any necessary comments. Working 40 hours a week gave Hamm extensive experience over the course of the 14 months of his internship, allowing him to understand the process from both the USACE and contractor perspective.
“It was an interesting learning experience at the beginning,” Hamm said. “You learn that there’s a relationship that [has to be cultivated] so that the contractors don’t just think you’re the bad guy.”
Though OWF is not intended strictly as a jobs program, its propensity to help wounded warriors refocus on their careers, ease the transition to civilian life, and chart a path to employment is highly beneficial, as Hamm attests.
As construction began on a new hospital at Fort Hood, Juracek concentrated on ensuring its safety compliance, giving Hamm responsibility to look after other USACE projects on the base by himself. “He’s a fast learner,” Juracek told the Fort Hood Sentinel. “Being by yourself, with the magnitude of projects going on on-post, the help is greatly appreciated.”
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan Engineer District-South personnel hosted a barbecue in honor of wounded warriors recovering at Kandahar Airfield. The barbecue, held April 5, 2013, was a way for district employees to show their appreciation to the warfighters and have fun, too. The district was inactivated, along with the Afghanistan Engineer District-North, on July 9, 2013, forming a single Transatlantic Afghanistan District. USACE photo by Karla Marshall
After transitioning out of the Army, Hamm left the OWF internship. He had hoped to go to work for USACE, but budgetary constraints prevented hiring him.
“But,” he explained, “my résumé, my name, the work I’d done and my face were out there. That resulted in a job. Now I’m back on the [Fort Hood] hospital job site working for one of the contractors as their chief safety manager. They loved the fact that I had experience with the Corps of Engineers. The company did not have any experience. I had everything they needed. I knew how to write the [compliance] reports. I was the one who used to review them.”
Though OWF is not intended strictly as a jobs program, its propensity to help wounded warriors refocus on their careers, ease the transition to civilian life, and chart a path to employment is highly beneficial, as Hamm attests.
“I have a relationship with everybody working on this job site. Working for the Corps would have been great, but where I am now, I’m still learning – I’m still networking. It’s awesome. That internship couldn’t have been better for me.”
Philip Golia echoed the sentiment. His internship with USACE actually led to employment with USACE at the Sacramento District’s Black Butte Lake where he’s part of the maintenance team.
In 2009, Golia was deployed in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army’s 235th Combat Engineer Company (Sapper) working to clear improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance from main supply routes.
During one of his group’s sorties, he and three of his comrades were injured when their vehicle hit an IED. After treatment and stabilization, Golia was transferred to a WTU at Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis, Wash.
While recovering, Golia learned about OWF and of the internship at Black Butte Lake in Orland, Calif. The familiar working environment and people on USACE’s staff there provided positive focus as he worked through his rehabilitation.
“Working at Black Butte Lake has been a great transition,” he said. “Being Army structured, it was a little easier to switch back to civilian life and gave me a sense of purpose, while keeping me focused.”
Following his internship, Golia was offered a full-time position at Black Butte Lake working as part of a maintenance crew that cares for park facilities and controls the reservoir level behind Black Butte Dam.