Vet News: VA Committed to Be "Employer of Choice" for Disabled Vets

WASHINGTON – Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Public Affairs Specialist Corey McGee has always loved to write. Being a writer was not his first choice of career, however: Corey preferred to serve his country by defending our freedom in uniform.

Born in Tampa, Florida, Corey enlisted in the Army after graduating High School. He spent six and one half years as an Infantryman, serving in the Army’s famed 10th Mountain Division, and seeing service in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

His Iraqi service lasted nearly a year. In April 2004, an enemy bullet struck him in the neck, and left him paralyzed from the neck down. For nearly a year, he was a paraplegic, but his own determination, and the help of caring physicians and nurses at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, enabled him to walk again.

Once he had sufficiently recovered, Corey took part in VA’s “Coming Home to Work” program, in which wounded service members work with VA vocational rehabilitation counselors to get unpaid work experience with the Federal Government.

This July, Corey’s writing skills and “can-do” attitude won him a full-time position in VA’s Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. Besides his job, Corey attends Northern Virginia Community College four nights a week; is engaged to be married; enjoys swimming, water skiing and scuba diving in the summer; and recently learned to ski as part of the Disabled Sports USA program.

“Corey’s story is a shining example of what disabled Veterans can accomplish,” said the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “We’re very proud to have him with us, helping accomplish our mission of service to those who have borne the battle and to their families.”

Corey joins 342 graduates of the Coming Home to Work Program hired by VA in 2005. Many others were hired by other federal agencies, including 160 by the Defense Department.

All told, about 16,000 of VA’s 235,000 employees—or 8 percent of its work force—are persons with disabilities, including the Honorable Gordon H. Mansfield, VA’s Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, who sustained a spinal cord injury in Vietnam in 1968 and uses a wheelchair for mobility. VA is among the top three cabinet-level departments in employing disabled Americans.

As our Nation celebrates National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and marks the 16th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Secretary Nicholson is reaffirming his commitment to make VA the “employer of choice” for disabled Veterans—and to help disabled Veterans find productive jobs throughout our society.

“By increasing awareness of hiring programs for Veterans, training our disabled Veterans and assisting them to find jobs, we can significantly increase the employment of disabled Veterans,” Nicholson said.

In addition to being a leader in hiring disabled Veterans, VA also tops the federal sector in contracting with businesses owned by disabled Veterans. A recent edition of Veterans Business Journal noted that 2.2 percent of VA’s fiscal year 2005 contracts were with service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses, more than any other cabinet department.

Corey McGee is proud to be a part of VA’s efforts to help disabled Veterans. He regularly visits his fellow Veterans still recuperating in VA and Department of Defense Hospitals. “Sometimes people need a push,” he said. “I let them know they should not let a disability bring them down—because there’s so much in life to be a part of, no matter how hurt you are. I hope I can inspire them to do great, wonderful things.”

VA is the second largest federal department, providing health care to more than 5.3 million Veterans at about 1,400 sites of care. The Department also administers disability compensation and pensions, provides home loan guarantees and educational assistance and manages vocational rehabilitation and other training programs for Veterans.

SOURCE: VA Press Releases