Army helps vets with `invisible wounds' find jobs

[unhappycamper]

Kyle Salisbury, right, holds his nephew Cameron Salisbury, whom he and his wife, Allison, hope to adopt. "Right now my job prospects are zero," said Salisbury, who was wounded in Iraq.


Army helps vets with `invisible wounds' find jobs
By MICHELLE ROBERTS
Associated Press Writer
Nov 17, 4:23 PM EST

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Richard Martin keeps a rearview mirror on his desk to prevent co-workers from startling him in his cubicle. The walls are papered with sticky notes to help him remember things, and he wears noise-canceling headphones to keep his easily distracted mind focused.

Martin, an Army veteran who was nearly blown up on three occasions in Iraq, once feared that post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury would keep him from holding down a civilian job, despite years of corporate experience and an MBA.

"Here I am with this background and I'm having problems with my memory," said Martin, a 48-year-old engineer and former National Guard major who now works for Northrop Grumman, helping to devise ways to thwart remote-detonated bombs.

The defense contractor recruited him through its hiring program for severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. The company consulted occupational nurses on how to help him do his job without becoming overly nervous when someone, say, drops a heavy object. Martin figured out other tricks, like the headphones, on his own.

But Martin is one of the lucky ones.


Rest of article at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INVISIBLE_WOUNDS?SITE=DCSAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-11-17-16-23-00