Program promotes awareness of veterans with logistics skills

The transition from active military service to private sector employment has never been an easy one, as many service members struggle to match their specialized training and experience to a fast-changing job market.

Many retiring defense industry professionals have an ace up their sleeves, however. Logistics is one task that military organizations perform to perfection, as warfighters in every branch deliver food, fuel, weapons, clothing, passengers, and equipment to distant corners of the earth. And they do it all while keeping their cool under pressures that would make many civilian laborers decide to stay in bed.

Now, the third-party logistics service provider (3PL) Legacy Supply Chain Services is launching a program to take advantage of this pool of talent. Legacy is unveiling a program called "Vets to WERC," designed to promote the hiring of veterans into the supply chain industry.

Vets to WERC will be announced at the Warehousing Education and Research Council's (WERC) 39th Annual Conference for Logistics Professionals, scheduled for Providence, R.I., May 15-18. (Visit www.werc.org for conference details.)

"We saw an opportunity to create a program with WERC that focuses greater attention [on] the value that military veterans can bring to companies in the warehousing, logistics, and supply chain fields," Legacy's director of marketing communications, Kyle Krug, said in a release. "The Vets to WERC program will create awareness of the natural alignment between returning military veterans with supply chain and logistics experience and the need for talented professionals in the supply chain industry."