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Returning Vets To Receive Schooling And Job Placement
OCEAN COUNTY - Disabled veterans of the conflict in Iraq will have access to both educational and job placement services thanks to a new agreement between Ocean County and the Veteran's Administration.
For more than 30 years, the VA has offered vocational training assistance for vets at the Ocean County Veterans Service Bureau.
But with the signing of the new agreement, the partnership will move one step further.
"For the first time in Ocean County, the VA will actu- ally have staff members onsite to assist our disabled vets in finding a job," said Freeholder Gerry P. Little.
Little, liaison to the Veterans Service Bureau, said disabled veterans often receive training that takes into account the injury they suffered while serving their country.
"If a veteran cannot perform physically demanding work, the county and the VA partnership helps train them for an office job or other position that is not physically demanding," he said. "With the addition of job placement, the VA will help our vets find a job in which they can excel."
Freeholder John P. Kelly praised the new agreement.
"We cannot do enough for our brave men and women who sacrificed so much fighting in the Middle East," Kelly said.
This is not the first time the county has partnered with the VA to help local veterans.
Last year, the VA began offering free post traumatic stress counseling for combat veterans in the Veterans Service Bureau office. "We have more veterans than any other county in New Jersey and these new partnerships will ensure that the veterans who most need our help will get it," Little said.
Iraq war veterans wanting more information on the new program can contact the veteran's bureau at 732-929-2096.
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