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Veterans in public service

The Oskaloosa Herald - 3/19/2019

March 19-- Mar. 19--MAHASKA COUNTY -- Police, fire and sheriff's departments are all undergoing staff recruiting and retaining difficulties.

At a recent Eggs and Issues forum featuring members of law enforcement and the fire department, emergency management and Mahaska Health Partnership, attendees discussed the hiring veterans.

American Legion Post 34 District Commander Darrin Alderson asked what the leaders were doing in terms of hiring veterans.

"We're working on resolutions through the federal level where veterans come out of the service, how you guys treat them," he said. "A lot of times, they already have the skillset you need, whether it be MPs, medical field, firefighters, we have all these entities in the military."

Mahaska County Sheriff Russell Van Renterghem said he had not yet looked into a current House of Representatives resolution Alderson mentioned.

However, Van Renterghem said, there are already federal guidelines regarding the preference for veterans.

"If I'm advertising a position for a deputy and I have three candidates, they all equal in their qualifications, but one of them is a veteran, I must hire them," he said. "We ran into that just last year. We had three very good candidates for a custodian at the law center, they all had experience in custodial duties, they were all semi-retired, and one of them was a veteran and we hired him. I am all in favor of that."

It is difficult, however, Van Renterghem said, to get some information from the armed forces.

"They have so many regulations on their confidentiality and so forth," he said. "In law enforcement, if you advertise a law enforcement position and you see military police on there, they're coveted. Those are the ones you want."

That's part of what the American Legion is trying to get ironed out, Alderson said.

"How do we get the state and local entities to bring that requirement to a standard level so that when you see that person getting out of the service, 'we already know they're trained, we know they're going to cross over into our role very fine,'" he said. "So that's some of the information that we need as American Legion members so that we can defend that resolution when we go in front of congress again."

Oskaloosa Police Chief Ben Boeke agreed with Van Renterghem that the preference for hiring veterans is already a policy.

"It doesn't matter if they're military police, although like Russ said, those are coveted people, they're already trained, ready to go," he said. "They already have a mindset that is useful to us in many ways. I'm in the middle of the hiring process. I just shut off the applications the other day. We've got a pretty good chunk of veterans that have applied with my department, and female veterans as well, which is great to see."

The veterans preference, Boeke said, is higher than an educational preference.

"The veterans I've got on my department, they have a different mindset than a kid that's just getting out of high school or just getting out of college that has never dealt with any issues like that or dealt with any kind of crisis," he said. "They almost come pre-trained and then we just have to mold them into what we do."

Oskaloosa Fire Chief Mark Neff asked whether men and women, when they are discharged by the armed forces, were given any kind of information or preparation for rejoining the civilian workforce, including public safety occupations.

"Maybe we've got a problem on the other end of not prepping the veterans as they're coming out and getting them those opportunities or at least that knowledge," he said.

Veterans do get a 24-hour course, Alderson said, preparing them to rejoin civilian life.

"So that's been a big change that the Legion, the VFW and the DAVs have really been pushing," he said. "So that's why some of these issues that are affecting you are also affecting us on the other side, so how do we help each other. It's basically what we're trying to do is provide support to the communities in which we all live in."

Managing Editor Angie Holland

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