Carpet bombing: a large area bombardment done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area. It ends with a lot of wasted efforts and high costs, and veterans sometimes utilize this approach when it comes to the job search after the military. One veteran found this as a metaphor to her life after Afghanistan. Blasting out resumes far and wide, or accepting “whatever” job or help without any clear, targeted direction.
This episode of ClearedCast is all about military transition and veteran success stories. The editorial team was joined by Sarah Maples who served as an Intelligence Officer in the US Air Force. She left the service in 2007 and after encountering obstacles with her own military transition, founded the blog: After the DD-214. This forum aims to help other veterans find success in their new civilian lives and hopefully learn about the many unknowns that veterans encounter. Sarah is also a contributor to the ClearanceJobs news site where she writes about topics that serve as golden nuggets to anyone in the military community.
Sarah calls herself a recovering secret squirrel and discussed what lead her to join the US Air Force and lead the secret squirrel life. She entered the service by accident, attending Tulane University on a ROTC scholarship and becoming an intelligence officer thereafter. She was told that she could utilize the languages she had under her belt…. which was not necessarily the case.
INTELLIGENCE FOR VETS
Her blog focuses on lending intel to veterans regarding the ever so daunting military transition; where individuals who serve can feel like they’re being thrown to the wolves. She let us in on the obstacles she personally encountered, and how being a military spouse following service was one of the most difficult parts: “If you deploy again, I’m going to rejoin the service.” She says that it is much worse counting down the days until your spouse comes home as opposed to being the one deployed and challenged with mission critical tasks.
We discuss the thing Sarah wish she would’ve know, because hindsight is always 20/20, and the allies that transitioning military, veterans and military spouses should rely on throughout this time.
We’re running a campaign right now at ClearanceJobs.com where we want to hear your veteran success stories. Because it’s helpful for defense recruiters to remember the importance of the work they’re doing, and helpful for service members to see how others previously navigated the transition. Sarah shares why she thinks it’s important to highlight these successes. Sharing veteran success stories is an important cog in the defense sector wheel. It encourages transitioning military as they enter the phase in their lifetime after the DD-214, and reminds recruiters about the population they’re serving as they’ve sacrificed a so much to serve us through service.
