JACKSON CENTER — Veterans living in Ohio have at least 1,900 business willing to employ them.
One of those companies is Airstream Inc., in Jackson Center.
On Wednesday they were honored for their commitment to hiring and retaining veterans.
“They are a significant employer of veterans in the community,” Chip Tansill, director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services said. “We love to go out to visit, and honor any company that hires veterans.”
Tansill, along with representatives from OhioMeansJobs, and the Office of Workforce Development for the state of Ohio, visited the Airstream plant to see those veterans in action.
Tansill said there are many veterans out there looking for work.
“Of course we want all Ohioan’s to have jobs, but we work really hard to get our veterans jobs. It’s very fulfilling for them as well as what they can give to the employer,” he said.
He noted, veterans are very disciplined, loyal, and creative.
“They have all of those attributes of great employees because they spent a lot of time in the military and it was very structured,” Tansill said. “You find veterans do well in companies, especially like Airstream, because they have a mission. So veterans understand they need to do this many things by the end of the day and they usually don’t have a problem adapting to that.”
The number of veteran and military friendly businesses grows everyday, Tansill said. Their group, along with OhioMeansJobs, seeks out these business and recognizes them with Veteran Challenge Coins.
The coins were presented to Airstream leadership Robert Wheeler, president and CEO, and Doug Burch, human resources manager. Employees who were also recognized were Larry Metz, a veteran who has worked at the company for 53 years, and Bob Thomas, a veteran who has worked for the company for 45 years.
“Believe it or not, out of all the offices we have in the whole state, it’s very important for us we give back, especially to veterans because they give so much. The first thing we normally say to a veteran when they come into our offices is ‘thank you for your service’,” John Spencer, of Troy, said, a workforce specialist with the Office of Workforce Development for the state of Ohio, who served in the Vietnam War.
“We hope that we get a lot more interest in hiring veterans across Ohio. We’re a very lucky state, lots of business, economic development, and 850,000 veterans. We’re very fortunate,” Tansill said
