Commentary: Putting Orange County’s retired vets to work

I have the honor of attending Goodwill of Orange County’s annual Golf Invitational to benefit the Tierney Center for Veteran Services. The center’s goal is to put 15,000 veterans to work in Orange County by 2020.

My goal is to call attention to the incredible work being done by the center and to encourage the rest of the country to take notice.

While unemployment rates for veterans are improving nationally, more than 150,000 veterans are underemployed and underserved. This is an unacceptable number when you think about the sacrifice these men and women have made for our country — and it’s incomprehensible when you consider just how prepared these men and women are for meaningful employment.

Veterans, in general, already have the skills that companies spend thousands of dollars to cultivate in their employees. Veterans know teamwork and how to solve complex problems, and they have strong values and a strong work ethic.

What Goodwill of Orange County and the larger Orange County community have realized is that when industry acts on its responsibility to help veterans, we all benefit greatly from the competitive advantage veterans provide.

That is why the Tierney Center for Veteran Services should serve as a model. The center functions as a single point of contact to support veterans in Orange County as they navigate their transition to civilian life. As a hub for streamlining services, the center connects veterans to public and private resources to help with financial literacy, job placement, stable housing, healthcare and benefits.

With more than 130,000 veterans currently living in Orange County and approximately 6,500 veterans joining that group every year, there is a profound need for this level of streamlining in Orange County. And, as it is centrally located in Tustin, the Tierney Center for Veteran Services is accessible within a two-hour drive for 60% of all veterans living in California.

Dedicated in honor of Thomas and Elizabeth Tierney, the Orange County philanthropists whose $1-million gift made the center possible, the center serves as a reminder to philanthropists and business leaders nationwide that the need to support our veterans is an ongoing one.

The Tierneys understood that the imperative to helping veterans is with us for years to come. The Cold War, our last ideological struggle, lasted 45 years. We are closer to the beginning of this struggle than the end, and we can’t expect the government to do the work alone. It is going to take public-private partnerships for some time to come to ensure that our veterans receive the care, support and direction that they deserve.

Our veterans fought for us. In Orange County, business leaders, philanthropists and Goodwill are now working together to fight for them. That’s what it’s going to take.

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GEN. GEORGE CASEY is the former commander of the Multinational Force-Iraq and 36th chief of staff of the U.S. Army.