Episode 100 Transcription

Welcome to Episode 100 of Behind The Mission, a show that sparks conversations with PsychArmor's trusted partners and educational experts. My name is Duane France and each week I'll be having conversations with podcast guests that will equip you with tools and resources to effectively engage with and support military service members, Veterans, and their families. You can find the show on all the podcast players or by going to www.psycharmor.org/podcast. 

Thanks again for joining us on Behind The Mission. Our work and mission are supported by generous partnerships and sponsors who also believe that education changes lives. Our sponsor this week is PsychArmor, the premier education and learning ecosystem specializing in military culture content. PsychArmor offers an online e-learning laboratory that's free to individual learners as well as custom training options for organizations. 

On today's episode, I'm honored to be commemorating our 100th episode by featuring an outstanding guest Marine Corps Veteran and Assistant Secretary of the Department of Labor the honorable James D. Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez is the Assistant Secretary for the Veterans Employment and Training Service.  He is responsible for preparing America's Veterans, service members and their spouses for meaningful careers. Mr. Rodriguez is an executive leader and proud Veteran with more than 30 years of experience in the U.S. government, corporate sector, and 21 years in the United States Marine Corps. You can find out more about Mr. Rodriguez, by checking out his bio in our show notes. So let's get into my conversation with him and come back afterwards to talk about some of the key points. 

DUANE: So Mr. Rodriguez, it's an honor to be able to share this time with you and highlight the work that the Department of Labor is doing to support service members, Veterans, and their families. Before we get into that, however, I'd be grateful if you would share with the audience your background and why you're so passionate about employment and career support for the military affiliated population.

JAMES: Well, I'm excited to be here. Any chance I get to talk about what we do at DOL VETS with respect to helping Veterans transition service members and military spouses find meaningful employment, I jump at every opportunity because these conversations are important. They're often had in smaller circles or sometimes behind the scenes, and so we are aiming to really do is have these in a larger, broader, perspective with corporate leaders, government leaders, anyone who really has the ability to hire the people that I just mentioned because we know how important it's to the workforce of the future of having men and women who have served in uniform and military spouses part of their teams. With that said,  I spent 21 years on active duty United States Marine Corps. Served in the first Gulf War in 1990-1991, six years as a Marine Corps Drill Instructor, training recruits and officer candidates. Recruit Depot, San Diego, Officer Candidate, Quantico, and a whole lot of other things in between that time and then I was  apart of Operation Enduring Freedom in my last appointment outta California was my second time in fourth Marine. Then retired from Wounded Warrior Battalion West there in California at Babola Naval Medical Center, where I was fortunate enough to build out a Wounded Warrior Program to help support wound other injured service members.

99% of 'em were combat injured, Purple Heart recipients and Navy Corpsman. And so we were looking for ways to really help them transition cause at the time there was really no transition programs in place. They were just in their embassy states, 2008/2009. And so we worked with the local community leaders in San Diego, corporate leaders, government leaders, and within the military itself, and really looked at ways to help build out some transition programs for these wound service members.

And that was my first inclination that I knew how important it was to help my fellow service members when I retired. And so, fortunately, I retired 2009 and went into a defensive aerospace company out here in Washington, DC and I worked for them for five and a half years, where I led some programs that were designed to help bring in more wounded, ill, or injured service members.

And I was at one point Director of Military Recruitment for a 32 billion dollar company and got into the government relations business as well, where I advocated for more programs to help corporations understand how to hire and retain service members when they transition outta military. And I became part of the White House Forces Initiative in 2010/11 timeframe to help the White House understand how to do this  and it just kind of snowballed from there. I stayed involved, through nonprofit support as volunteers and, then my subject matter expertise from a corporate standpoint on the how to help other corporations build out Veteran programs. And I became Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, through those efforts from 2014 to 2017, leading the Office of Warrior Care Policy.

And then that term ended. I've went back to the corporate space, a lot of work as an executive leader in another 52 billion company, and I supported Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs from a business development standpoint. And then I found myself back here in 2020/21 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Department of Labor, acting Assistant Secretary.

And then I was finally confirmed by an aesthetic in May of this year to be the assistant secretary. And, it's a job that initially I said I was gonna come back to government, but as a job that I could not turn down. Cause it gave me the opportunity to continue my support of, again, my fellow Veterans and their families and military spouses. So here I am. 

DUANE: I think there's a couple of different things from that story. One continued service after the service. I think that's really important for a lot of Veterans. And and of course I probably, my first squad leader told me, be careful when you start to volunteer because then you're gonna just get called on over and over. But I think one of the most interesting things about your background was like me, you serve pre 9/11 and post 9/11. So you likely saw what happened in the mid to late nineties and the drawdown, like I saw. And the differences post Gulf War and the lack of resources, to be honest, in the mid nineties for those Veterans and then what that might look like to post 9/11 Veterans getting out now.

JAMES: I sure did. And ironically I just had lunch with a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in 30 years who I served in the Gulf War with. I had lunch with him on, Saturday and he was up here for the holidays in Northern Virginia, from South Carolina. And we were talking about this cause he was asking, what do I do? And I was asking what he does is the usual stuff when he hadn't seen somebody in a long time. And, he goes, you know, I wish they had those resources when I got out back in 1991, 92 timeframe. Because at the time we had a stop loss. And so a lot of service members who were required to stay on active duty and were not able to transition out on a normal time frame as soon as we got back from the Gulf War, they were pushed out. And there was no resources to help them transition out of the military. They were just, here's your DD2 14, thank you for your service and goodbye. And fortunately, we've evolved over time. We still can always get better at our transition process.

But, we've evolved significantly from, back in the nineties in the, I think one of the beauties of what I get to do here as part of the Transition Assistance Program is Labor has a big stake in, those courses that are provided to transition service members. The beauty of it is that it's required for all transition service members when they're getting out.

Officer enlisted, and I really championed that because you don't know what you don't know, and so at least if we can give them that information in an adequate time, within that one year mark required by Congress, we can give them that information, help them make a more informed decision, the better position they're gonna be.

And our biggest challenge there is really getting into those tap classes in a time that allows them to really take that information, digest it, and then put into action in preparation for that transition. So we still have work to do, but we've come along way.

DUANE: And I think that transition can last, up to years. My father was a Vietnam Veteran and arguably he was still transitioning out of the military. Like many of those older generation Veterans. A lot of the listening audience were either connected to the military themselves or served like you and I did in some way. One common thing that is often recognized we're just talking about is that the transition out of services can be challenging.That's true obviously when it comes to medical care and where you're gonna live, but it's especially true and that's a particular concern when it comes with challenges with employment for transitioning service members. 

JAMES: Yeah. I'll tell you, great point about your father. To me, as I've learned over the last 14 years of my retirement, is that transition is continuous, right? You're constantly learning something new and  you know what's gonna benefit your next career opportunity. Even if you have a job right now, maybe it's not the perfect fit for you, and then you have to rescale or upscale and you're now looking forward to the next opportunity for you.

Maybe it's somewhere else you wanna relocate cuz you're not excited about where you're currently living, but that's where you landed after you got outta the military. And so you can look at corporate opportunities or whatever employment opportunities exist in another place. There might be more, better for you when it comes to tax burdens for example. Things that we don't talk about, we talk about the transition processes, you know, the importance of taxes that you are now gonna be paying, that you probably didn't have to pay for when you're active duty, cuz you're exempt from them from the states. And so those type of things are important when you make your final decision to transition out.

But we're talking about resources. The couple of things that I wanna talk about, that we do here at the Department of Labor. A lot of Veterans are just now getting, information about, and we're trying to do our best really spread this information across the Department of Defense, across our Veterans community, so that way we can point people to the right direction on what type of resources exist to support that transition.

And one of them is the Skill Bridge Program that, I know a lot of your listeners probably are familiar with, but it's a department of defense program that allows you to do an apprenticeship program while you're on active duty. I can do salary and go working in a field that allows you to develop some skill sets.

And then after that, the apprenticeship is complete, you're out of the military. We have a 98% higher rate right now for people who participate. I have some of these skill bridge locations, if you will, across the country. And I've seen them firsthand in action on skills that are being developed by these young men and women in some of these trades.

For example, Veterans in piping out of Camp Pendleton. A great organization that teaches men and women about the value of the skilled trades when it comes to working in the pipe industry, sheet metal industry, those type of things. And, they actually have training programs, right there on Camp Pendleton and Joint Base Lewis-McChord. They allow them to do this work, get these skill sets, get their certifications and licenses in many cases. And they are hired right before they even transition out. They're offered a job. As soon as they step out of uniform, they go right into employment. So we know how valuable that Skill Bridge Program is first and foremost. And then now also we have deployment navigated partnership pilot that we've rolled out that is a supplement to the Transition Assistance Program where we have this right now only at select installations because it's still in the deposit stage, but is across all the services and even overseas.

And what that does, it allows us to a one on one counseling session with that individual service member. So we're supporting the tap information, but now we're giving them the opportunity to learn more, help them develop some stronger resumes that allow them to transition that information into what corporate recruiters are looking for.

On top of that, we have partners that are part of this pilot. One of them being, for example, helmet of hard hats. And so if you're looking to go into the construction industry, we now automatically can make that warm handoff right into the helmets of hard hats. And so there's other industries that are partners.

And, we're able to make those handoffs directly with those organizations, which also leads me to our American Job Centers. Most  young men and women are separated from the military, do not even know that American Job Centers exist. And these are workforce development programs that allow us to provide free resources to Veterans who have significant barriers to employment.

So when someone's transitioned out of military and they're moving from come to California to Jacksonville, Florida, for example. We can make sure that they know what resources exist in Jacksonville, Florida, because we have disabled Veteran outreach program leads there. We have local Veteran employment resource leads that can help bring them into Jacksonville.

Let them know what resources are available for them, specifically what companies are there to help them find employment opportunities that are conducive to what they're looking for. So those resources have panned out extremely well for us as, the pie stage continues to evolve. And then one of the other things that you talked about that, and we spoke about is transition is continuous.

If you're a Veteran and you've been out for a while and you're looking for your next opportunity, because maybe you know you didn't get paid well enough, you wanna use your skill sets to find a better paying job. But now we have an off based transition training program that all Veterans can use and it's a version of the active duty tap classes, and there's various modules in there that you can use to really help you refine your skillsets, connect with employers who are looking to hire Veterans and then really help you realign your resume to meet some of the requirements that maybe your current employer really, has really helped develop, but now you wanna use them in a different industry. We can take all of that information, build out your resume to make it stronger, to get you prepared for that next employment opportunity.

And one of the other things I wanna talk about briefly is, what we have done for our military spouses. We have a program called Transition Employment Assistance for Military Spouses, and that is nine modules that are virtual and recorded. They can go in there and take this training that allows 'em to really be specific about developing their skill sets, building out their own narrative for employment.

Cause we know how valuable it is to have military spouses employed as well. And there's a lot of other programs that I can talk about, but those are the main ones. But let me mention this, I said, uh, those are the main ones. At every state across the union, we have a state director, and in many of the states we have an assistant state director that can really help the transition of service members to their states when they're coming outta the military or if they're already Veterans in that state, and they can provide state resources and information about what we have from a labor standpoint to help with that employment piece.

Then we have six regional Veteran employment coordinators across the entire country or our vets, as we call them, are broken down into regions. The United States is broken down into regions to include Hawaii and the Virgin Islands, and they are the touchpoints and connectors to corporations in their regions.

So if you are looking to get out and you're looking to get into a specific type of company or industry, our vets have those connections and they can directly work with an individual to those companies and make that connection. We have about 2,800 personnel across the country that really help do everything that I just mentioned.

And in FY 2022, 43,000 Veterans, service members, military spouses, were touch wire program alone. And so all these programs, in a nutshell exist to support that transitioning service member and/ or Veteran and military spouse. 

DUANE: I think that's amazing and really, not just the amount, but also the comprehensiveness of it. You know, working with service members who are still in the DOD through the TAPS program, through the Skill Bridge Program, transitioning them into their post-military life, but also being in their  communities. I've got colleagues here in my community who are dev ops at our local workforce center. Really there's that idea and perhaps it was maybe a little earlier in the teens of, what was it? The first career post-military lasted 12 to 18 months. I was one of those statistics, right? If I got the first job that came along, just because I needed to put food on the table, but it wasn't the right fit for me, and I hopped to another job immediately. I think the skill bridge program, taps the support that you have in communities ro help the Veteran find the right fit sooner, will reduce a lot of that early career turnover.

JAMES: Yeah, I agree. And I've seen this both from a government standpoint and a corporate standpoint, is that there's some research that shows that the Veteran within their first year will leave their first three jobs. And that’s not uncommon. The reason being because your point exactly, Duane, you find yourself in a position where you do have to have some kind of economic stability when you make that transition out, especially if you have a family. And so you're looking to what is gonna allow you to do that immediately and sometimes depending on where you relocate to, that might not be the right industry that you're gonna be in. And so you have to really figure out what resources can help you get into that industry. But also, how can you really develop a narrative that really helps define your skill sets when you're trying to really talk to employers about what value you bring to the employers.

So there's two parts to that equation, right? It's how do we educate the individual and how do we educate the employer so that way there can be a conversation about where is the right fit for that Veteran and the right fit for the company. One of the biggest things that I consistently speak about is underemployment of our Veterans, because oftentimes they are transition outta military. They're going into jobs that, that is the right fit for them right then and there, but not necessarily long-term. And so they come in a specific level because that's what they found. And oftentimes they leave, as I mentioned, because they are not in the right type of role, that is the fitting of what their experience and backgrounds are.

And so we wanna make sure that companies understand how to bring Veterans into that mid-management level or senior leader level based off of their experiences. And, we're constantly advocating for that. But at the same time, we have to educate Veterans how to be advocates for themselves when they're looking for the right roles to transition into when they get outta the military.

DUANE: And I think that education piece, it's, it may be ironic that you talk about education, but it's helping the Veterans learn more about what they're doing. But one experience that I've seen with a lot of Veterans, younger, old, especially recent Veterans, is they leave the service and they don't go into the workforce. They jump immediately into college. It's paid for, includes stipends, housing allowance, and it's an easy answer to sort of put the pause button so you don't have to figure out immediately what's next. But college isn't for everybody and I've seen Veterans who don't have that educational goal really flounder in that.

Your perspective is that college isn't the only post-military option. You've talked about some of the skilled trades, giving the opportunities for Veterans to participate in apprenticeships is a good way to answer that what’s next question.

 JAMES: Yeah, it's a great opportunity, especially right now when you have the White House, you have labor, you have so many industries right now, looking at how we can develop the apprenticeship program even more than what they can develop in the past. Understand the value that Veterans really bring to an apprenticeship program, but also the value that they get outta an apprenticeship program. And so the beauty of it is you earn while you learn. And so while they're in an apprenticeship program, regardless of what trade they are in, they're getting paid. On top of that, they're developing skill sets that are gonna allow them to have transferability of those skills into whatever industry that they are going to eventually wind up in.

And then on top of that, they have the opportunity to join unions. In many of these cases where they, get into specific traits, they are represented by unions. One of the things we know about unions is that they have a similar culture to the military where they bring people. They bring people into that culture.

They develop 'em, they train them, they give ' em a pathway to future success, and on top of that, they have amazing benefits. On average, a Veteran that goes through a union program after they complete that union training program, they're making anywhere from 73,000 to 77,000 as soon as they finish that training.

So when the completes are four year degree on average, 66 to 68,000 a year. And so you look at the differences there of skill sets required to get into, both of those two areas, right? You take your military skill sets, of course you can apply that to a college degree, but you can really apply it to an apprenticeship program because a lot of it requires, multitasking, management, leadership, all those type of things that you have to have to be successful long term, just part of a trade association, if you will, or job and trades. And there's numerous industries that have really embraced this. I've been speaking at, various conferences around clean energy, the future of the country, the future of the green movement, if you will, right? Going electric batteries, wind, solar, those other things. Getting more Veterans into that because that is a future of work as well as cybersecurity and IT. I spoke at a conference here not too long ago about the building out apprenticeship programs for cyber. One of the things that I mentioned to the audience and a lot of 'em were people who've been doing cyber for years, but not necessarily understanding what value of Veteran who has cyber skills from the military brings and I was telling 'em, I said, you have 19, 20 year old kids in charge of national security because they're working on cyber programs to prevent cyber tax and our national security and our infrastructure when it comes to DOD. And of course when they get out of the military, they're getting tremendous amounts of training.

The government invests hundreds of thousands of dollars in every man or woman in the military throughout their professional career, whether it's four years or 20 years, 30 years. They take all that training, license, certifications, and then now they can take that and translate it into what is required for that civilian workforce. And so we are really trying to get people to understand the value of military service. The investment that the taxpayer makes and our men and women who serve, and how it is a return on investment for that taxpayer by them getting employed in those specific industry. 

I'll give you a quick story. We're doing some work on the, 90 day trucker challenge with the White House, Department of Labor, Department of Transportation. We were doing this whole trucking transportation challenge where we're looking at how can we really take all of our resources to get more Veterans, military spouses into the trucking ing industry. Because if you recall, we were having a trucking challenge and we still are, right? We're getting people licenses to do commercial drivers license.

And, I was speaking to a Marine who deployed with me in 2008, combat wounded, he was in college, had a family, was in college in Texas and had been there for a year plus. And he realized this is harder than I thought to maintain my economic stability for my household. And, he was driving to class one day.

Then he saw Billboard and it was from the company that, was hiring Veterans to be CBOs and they were gonna bring him in through an apprenticeship program and train them. Within four years of him joining that company, after he saw that billboard, this is his story, after he saw that billboard, he called them up, got hired as part of the apprenticeship program.

Within four years, he's leading their Veterans Outreach Program. He's got award from the National Safety Board for being the team captain, and is now an advocate on safety for truckers across the country. Goes around the country, speaks about that. And, he brings Veterans within this company together all the time because again, we talked about the culture, the culture of Veterans, helping veterans in that corporation has really evolved. 

And so there are numerous pathways for our Veterans to be successful without a four year college. We want them to do that if that's what they choose. But we also want them to know that there's an alternative through an apprenticeship program that they chose to do to go that route. 

DUANE: I think that what's really important is how you're trying to spread the word. Because if he would've taken another route to work that day, he might not have seen that billboard. Right. You know, it, trying not to make it so that somebody happens to stumble upon the information, and really spreading the information is you don't have to have been in the skilled in the military, you know, there's those occupational specialties in the military, but just because you're an infantryman or a food service worker or you're a motor transport operator for example, doesn't mean that you can't be a plumber or a master electrician or a glazer or something like that. 

JAMES: It's a great example that you outlined,  is that if you look at the future of for example, and I've been having conversations with numerous people in various trades. You look at the future of trades, the workforce that's aging is not being filled fast enough. Replacements are not coming into those trades fast enough. And so we need to take people from all kinds of background and, experience MOs that you highlighted there and get them trained on how to really be part of the solution if you will. How do we replace those people? And part of that replacement is education, training, professional development, and that's what our service members are used to. One of the things I always talk to Veterans about is that when you look through your next opportunity after military is look for what their professional development program really stands when it comes to what's gonna be best for you as an individual.

Because when you go from that E one, you know what you have to do to become an E five throughout that process, right? Or an O one to become an O five, all the professional government requirements you have to hear. That should be the same type of mentality you have when you go to the corporate space.

What is gonna get me from being a business analyst to a vice president? There's things I have to do along that group. Same thing in the trades. What's gonna get me to be an apprentice? The journeyman process, eventually to becoming a team lead. How do I get all of those train requirements accomplished? How do I do this? Where do I do this? That will help me understand how I can build out my career regardless of what path, that career is gonna take me on in whatever trades. 

DUANE: You know, I think that's definitely some great advice. And you're right, when you were of a certain rank, you knew that there was a way to, to get to that next rank in the military. Doesn't always seem to be that way in post-military life, but it can be. And it should be. Definitely, I am a huge fan of the work that Department of Labor is doing. If people wanted to find out more about some of these programs, if they wanted to perhaps engage in some of these initiatives, how can they do that?

JAMES: Yeah, the easiest way to do it is I tell everybody if you go google, DOL. That's basically Department of Labor Veteran Employment Training Services. You Google that, that's gonna take you to our website. And then from there you can really see all the programs that we have. You can really look at what we've been doing through our social media.

I encourage people to really follow us on social media because there's so much information that is constantly put out there in across our regions and across our national office about the programs we just talked about today. Whether it's employment navigator programs, office transition, training teams, all that stuff is constantly out there and to get updates, is important and somebody's making that transition out cuz you want as much information as you can.

Because there's so much of that information. But if you have a specific idea of what you're looking for, we can help you find it. And we actually just awarded last month, 835 gold and platinum Awards to corporations who are hiring Veterans and as part of our Higher Investment Giant Program. And basically where it does, it awards these companies that meet certified for hiring and retaining Veterans. 

Then we take that information, put it on our webpage, and it allows us to have a link for somebody to come in and connect directly with that industry department that received this award. And regardless of what state you're looking at, they're in there, regards of what industry you're looking at. They're in there. So every year we highlight companies that are doing a lot to hire Veterans and retain them, and they get awards based off of many certain criteria throughout the year. 

DUANE: I think that's, that's definitely amazing and I'll make sure that all of the links to those resources are in the show notes. Any last thoughts before we close today sir?

JAMES: Duane, I appreciate this conversation. Thank you for your service. I didn't mention that at the beginning. I always like to do that because one of the things that you mentioned is there's a continuation of service, for Veterans, I think that's something that's not lost on us.

I often talk to Veterans and service members about this. I said, when you guys are transitioning outta military, your first instinct is, I wanna be as far away as possible. Then you quickly realize how much you miss of the culture, right? How much you miss the people that you serve with. And you should never let that go. And I think, one of the things that you can continue to do is be involved somehow find out what that involvement is, whether it's volunteerism, whether it's being an advocate on a podcast, right? About the things that, we're doing to support. Be part of the solution and let us know how we can be better on top of that.

One of the things that I really try to pride myself in is one is getting out to where the Veterans are military spouses are and where our partners are. So I travel around the country extensively and meet with these partners at the local level cause that's where the work is getting done, that's where the grunt work gets done.

And so I get so much information. What we can do better and how we are actually performing as well when I get out at the local levels. And so if there's things that we can do as an agency better, by all means let us know. But at the same time, use your resources because of their, they're provided by the federal government.They're provided by the taxpayer, and they're designed to be a benefit to help someone transition successfully. Cause we know how important it's to have a successful transition out of the military active service. 

DUANE: Absolutely appreciate that and appreciate your service and especially even your continued service.Thank you so much for coming on the show today. 

JAMES: Thank you Duane and again, thanks for PsychArmor. I had a great visit when I was out there last year and I know all the valuable work that you all do for our young men and women in service and for military spouses and it's partners like you all that make our job a lot easier.

Once again, we would like to thank this week sponsors PsychArmor. PsychArmor is a premier education and learning ecosystem. Specializing in military culture content. PsychArmor offers an online e-learning laboratory that has free to individual learners as well as custom training options for organizations. You could see all that they offer at www.psycharmor.org. 

As I mentioned in the beginning, I was honored to be able to feature Assistant Secretary Rodriguez on the show. I'm always honored that our guests spend some time with us sharing their passion and enthusiasm for supporting the military affiliated population. But for someone who is as busy as an assistant secretary of a federal agency to make time to share the work of their department is really special. It speaks to Mr. Rodriguez passion, of course, but it also speaks to the respect he has for you, the listeners of this show and the knowledge that your interest in passion for supporting those who served and those who care for him matches his own. So of course, Mr. Rodriguez’s  work is really dedicated in supporting service members, Veterans, and their families in employment. And through stable employment, their overall wellness and well-being. 

Being a Veteran himself, Mr. Rodriguez recognizes that one of the challenges regarding job seeking is that many Veterans will find difficulty in balancing immediate needs with their long-term needs when it comes to employment. A job, especially for those who served in or are affiliated with the military is more than just a paycheck or a means to support their families. 

For however long they were in the military, it was that, or sometimes just barely that, but it was meaningful. It gave them purpose and could even be enjoyable at times. If you're the type of person who enjoys things like standing outside in the rain for no reason. But really the military provided service members an opportunity to serve their country? Well, yes, obtaining some benefits but really in a way that was meaningful to them. 

When we get out of the military, however, we hopefully have the same experience, but not always. We take the first job that comes along. Like I did hoping that it would provide that meaning and purpose. But finding that it doesn't. That leaves that rapid turnover that Mr. Rodriguez mentioned, and a lack of satisfaction on the part of both the employer and the Veteran or military spouse. 

It's great to hear that Mr. Rodriguez and his team across the country are not only helping employers hire Veterans and their families and to help those individuals find jobs, but to help those who are seeking employment and those who are providing employment to ensure that it's the right job, which is a win for everyone. 

The other point that I would like to make briefly is one that has been made before on the show. The military is an industry that is exclusively focused on national defense on land sea and the air along the coast. And now in space. That's the mission. To protect our nation and our nation's interests from external threats. To do that, however, there's another thing that the military is, and that's a learning organization. 

For 22 years, I was constantly learning. And as I increased in rank, I was teaching, mentoring and developing while I was simultaneously being taught, mentored, and developed. Well, the mission of defending the nation was what we did, learning was how we did it. And that makes Veterans flexible and adaptable. 

When I think of some of the places that I found myself in the military and I, and those around me had to figure things out to accomplish the mission with the resources that we could find or ask for it's mind boggling. On my last deployment, we arrived at a location in North Africa with about six half built buildings and was told in 45 days this needs to be a functioning multi-national training camp that will house and support 500 soldiers from 10 countries. And we made it happen. That's the value that service members and their families bring to employers, solution seeking resourceful, selfless individuals who can quickly look at a situation, grasp what needs to be done, understand what resources there are to do it and make it happen. 

When we leave the military, we're no longer serving the nation, but the skills we developed to do that are transferable to whatever we do. We just have to have the opportunity to do that. Mr. Rodriguez and it's nearly 3000 colleagues across the country are there to support us in that. And I, for one am grateful. 

So, hopefully you appreciated my conversation with Mr. Rodriguez. Another quick mention, this is the 100th episode and the first episode of 2023. 100 is a nice round number and a big milestone. It means we've been doing a weekly podcast for a couple of years, with a week off in July and December, each year. 

We appreciate you taking the time to listen. We know that you're out there listening to us. We can see that the show is being downloaded. If we didn't, we wouldn't have stuck with it. So we appreciate you, the listeners for continuing to join us. We would love to hear more from you so if you do have some feedback, let us know. Drop a review in your podcast player of choice, or send us an email at info@psycharmor.org. We always appreciate hearing from listeners, both feedback on the show and suggestions for future guests. 

For this week, PsychArmor resource of the week, I'd like to share the PsychArmor course Using The National Labor Exchange To Find Veterans To Hire. In this course, employers will learn how to utilize the national labor exchange to amplify their online recruiting strategy, gain access to special talent pipelines and how to utilize other trusted partners to reach the maximum number of job seekers. You can find a link to the resource in our show notes.