www.mookieland.org/pbj.html -
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Published on: 7/20/2007
Last Visited: 9/4/2008
These people offer potential employers valuable skills learned under intense conditions, said Bryan Dunn, a former Army captain who now helps young veterans find leadership-level employment.
"The average 26 year-old hasn't been in charge of 50 people and $20 million worth of high-tech equipment like we have," he said."We can make an immediate positive impact."
A 31-year-old from Oaklyn, New Jersey, Dunn flew Chinook helicopters as part of the second wave of troops to arrive in Afghanistan in 2002.He was in the first wave entering Iraq in 2003.
While staging for operations in Kuwait just prior to the Iraq invasion, Dunn's unit was barraged by a massive sandstorm with 80 mile-per-hour winds.Embedded journalists took shelter in Dunn's tent, and he was quoted on the front page of the New York Times the next day.
"It was pretty cool," he said."I hadn't spoken to my family since coming to the Middle East and this is how they learned about me."
The things he experienced in Afghanistan have stayed with him.Mortar shells and grenades were lobbed into the military camp daily.Local men would rummage through the mess hall trash for food.The stark countryside in the foothills of the Himalayas looked like the moon, Dunn said.He would fly for hours at night without seeing a single electric light.As the sun rose, he would find families sleeping on rooftops.
"It was like flying through the Bible 2000 years ago," he said.
When he returned from war, he used Soar Consulting to find a job.Soar is a non-government organization that places recent veterans in jobs.During the process of job hunting, Soar hired Dunn to work in the Philadelphia region as an account executive.
"No one tells a 23 year-old six months out of college to go out and execute national policy except the military," Dunn said.
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