Veterans Helping Veterans: Putting Words Into Action

RICHLAND, Wash. – There is a unique bond among service members.

Whether they were deployed to an active war zone or served during peacetime, they have shared experiences that include basic training, physical fitness tests, living in close and sometimes uncomfortable quarters, embracing the simplicity of military time, and never-ending acronyms. So many acronyms.

For those men and women who saw combat, there is a whole other set of shared experiences that can include living in shipping containers, waking to air raid sirens in the middle of the night, eating cold food in the field, and relishing every package from home.

Life after service can be a challenge to navigate, especially for those service members who have lived through combat.

Buddy Cunningham is a former soldier who manages the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Program infrastructure integration team for EM Office of River Protection tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS). The one-time Army personnel specialist recently found a calling in helping combat veterans learn to hunt. As an avid hunter himself, Cunningham reached out to the Wounded Veteran’s Waterfowl Club last year and was invited to join the group on a hunt.

“I felt weird because I’m not a wounded vet, but I was able to work with two guys who have combat-related injuries who had never hunted waterfowl before,” said Cunningham. “I ended up putting down my gun and just helped them. That was more rewarding than bagging birds of my own.”

For Veterans Day weekend, Cunningham opened his home to a group of veterans from Colorado and western Washington for a hunting expedition in the Columbia Basin. The area around the Hanford Site and along the Columbia River is world renowned for its waterfowl hunting, and Hanford’s cleanup mission is working to make sure it stays that way.

“Even though I don’t have that combat experience, we can share stories about our time in service, and getting a chance to introduce them to a hobby they can embrace with or without combat wounds is very rewarding,” said Cunningham.

WRPS Radiological Control Manager Jerry Kurtz has also found a way to help fellow veterans. He volunteers for a local job placement agency and community college, meeting with men and women who have recently left the military and are trying to land that first civilian job.

“Many of these folks are in their twenties, and they’ve never needed a resume and never had a job interview,” said Kurtz.

Every month, Kurtz and representatives from the WRPS workforce resources group meet with as many as 10 men and women who recently separated from the service, reviewing their resumes, offering them tips for their job search, and holding mock interviews.

“There was one gentleman I worked with who I later found out had been about a week away from being homeless,” recounted Kurtz. “I worked with him on his resume for about 20 minutes, and he ended up landing a job that changed his life.”

Kurtz and other WRPS employees formed a group called Veterans for Veterans, with a goal to mentor veterans, develop leadership skills, and successfully transition from military to civilian life.

“This group wants WRPS to be known as a veteran-friendly company, and that means meeting veterans where they are, helping them when they need help, and making sure they know they have a support system ready and available to them,” said Kurtz.