In your opinion, what makes a business "military/veteran friendly"?

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 11:52:11 -0500

Over the past couple of days a number of businesses have offered discounts, free meals, etc. to veterans and active servicemembers. Does that alone make a business veteran/military friendly or do you personally take other factors into account? What about Veteran hiring initiatives and/or training programs?

Response by SPC Margaret Higgins made Nov 12 at 2018 12:02 PM

SPC Margaret Higgins — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 12:02:38 -0500

A business is military-friendly if it hires veterans. CPT Private RallyPoint Member

Response by PVT Mark Zehner made Nov 12 at 2018 1:00 PM

PVT Mark Zehner — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 13:00:52 -0500

When my family still owned repair shops we hired a lot of Veterans! They were all hard working!

Response by SrA John Monette made Nov 12 at 2018 4:02 PM

SrA John Monette — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 16:02:50 -0500

hire veterans, cater to veterans (of course, not exclusively), discounts, allows veterans to take time when needed for appointments, family, etc.

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 12 at 2018 4:08 PM

Sgt Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 16:08:05 -0500

Many organizations have found that hiring Veterans is the smart thing to do because they are receiving hard working dedicated employees. I have no problem in taking advantage of Veteran/senior citizen/AARP, or any other discount that is offered.

Response by SPC Steven Depuy made Nov 13 at 2018 1:07 PM

SPC Steven Depuy — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 13:07:44 -0500

A lot of "military discounts" can be a sham, so you have to be careful. I owned my own company, and when the Iraq war went into the nasty phase, a local guy from the PANG was deployed and his home was in rough shape. I did the HVAC work for free there, I did get some of the material donated by my vendors I buy from. I wanted to do more for people, but had zero luck trying to get anyone at Ft Indiantown Gap to take me serious that I wanted to help the families of people deployed and would do emergency things for free. Then the recession hit, I no longer run my company but just work here, so thats life. I know as an employer, its been rough trying to hire vets and have them last. Its hard to go from being deployed and hammered by IED's, and settling in to life again. My own son, I love him dearly, is not the same since he came back from Iraq, and lived through 5 IED hits on his vehicles. Lets just say the VA has been a total joke, all they wanted to do was pump him full of drugs so he would go away, and he just stopped going. He works hard, just wish I could see him really enjoy life again before I die.