Thank you to Kevin Hamilton, SCA, Vice President of Communications, for sharing these articles
The Student Conservation Association’s Veterans Fire Corps recently received press coverage in Stars and Stripes, The Buffalo Bulletin (Wyoming), and The Craig Daily Press (Colorado). Click the links below to read the articles in their entirety and find out how the Corps helps veterans transition back to civilian life.
By Michael A. Madalena
The men and women I’m training know we’re about to confront a merciless enemy. We are all military veterans, and in the field we have an objective, a plan, and the flexibility to change tactics midstream — just as in the armed forces.
In this case our adversary isn’t al-Qaida or any of the other combatants I faced with the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan and Iraq; it’s not even human but it eats, breathes and grows.
It’s the nearly 32,000 wildfires that the U.S. Department of the Interior says have burned more than 3.4 million acres nationwide this year. These are not low-intensity ground fires, but “mega fires” created from lack of mitigation and irregular historic fire regimes.
I’m a crew leader for the nonprofit Student Conservation Association’s Veterans Fire Corps…keep reading.
By Holly Kays
When Joe Svidron’s days as an active member of the U.S. Marine Corps ended and his time as a park management major began, the transition was anything but smooth. After four years in the military, college was like a foreign land, full of younger students whose world of fashion and fads was nothing like the one Svidron left when he enlisted, and military discipline had nothing in common with college life.
“Going back to school wasn’t so great, and it was hard to acclimate because everybody’s five, six, seven years younger than you,” Svidron said. “The things they’re doing now you had no clue were going on when you were in the military, so it’s kind of foreign to you. You’re looking for that camaraderie and that sense of purpose and accomplishment again, and it’s not really there in the civilian sector.”
All that changed when Svidron stumbled across an advertisement for the Student Conservation Association Veterans Fire Corps…keep reading.
By Matt Stensland
After spending a year deployed with the Army in Iraq, Elder Pyatt had to adjust to civilian life when he finished his service in 2008.
Life in the military moves much faster, said Pyatt, who served to earn money for college.
“There is an adjustment period,” he said.
In the Army, Pyatt used mechanic’s tools to work on large military vehicles. This summer, he is removing limbs from beetle-killed lodgepole pine trees near Stagecoach with a chain saw, which he never really had used before.
“Not in this capacity,” Pyatt said. “Like yard work kind of stuff.”
Pyatt, whose goal is to earn a master’s degree, is joined by three other veterans and a crew leader…keep reading.
