The dedicated soldiers of the military are coming back from war with experience that could benefit any company, yet they are having difficulty getting securing employment.

According to the US Department of Labor about 160,000 Active service members and 110,000 Reserve and National Guard members are discharged annually. About 32,000 of those discharged join almost one million veterans already unemployed.

To help assist these struggling veterans, the Hire a Hero USA program was created. It helps get veterans prepared to go back into the workforce successfully.

“The soldiers today are more likely to have psychological issues, they [the programs] will help them get re-adjusted,” said librarian and Army veteran Bob Ott.

Ott was a paratrooper, an airborne ranger, and lead a military police platoon of 30 soldiers in his years in the army. When he left the service and got his first job in teaching in Baltimore County he received special treatment.

“As a veteran I received preferential treatment, many other businesses do it as well,” said Ott.

According to hireaherousa.org, the Hire a Hero program is helping an average of nine veterans a week get hired. Their team is comprised of military veterans, some with combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, and others are business veterans. Due to this mix of military and civilian experience, they are effective in teaching veterans what is needed of them in the workforce.

“I think this is wonderful, they [veterans] should be treated well by their country,” said Ott.

The team teaches veterans the skills of self-marketing and then networking them into companies that fit the experience the soldiers have. Hire a Hero USA has resume tools, and interview tools available on their website. They hold workshops on military bases and camps so that the soldiers have access to them.

“They are a HUGE help to military members trying to find employment,” said a United States Marine Corps Reserve member Brian Snee.

Research suggests that sometimes the only thing these veterans know is the soldier life; therefore, they are inexperienced in the process of getting a job, maintaining the job, and doing it well. This makes employers wary of hiring veterans because they are unsure of how reliable they can be both mentally and physically.

“What is important for new veterans to realize when looking for jobs is that they need to advocate for themselves, highlight traits that were built in the army,” said Ott.

Another program Marine for Life, has 5,000 companies signed on to hire veterans. Almost 40 companies are a part of a different program that hires veterans, especially ones that are coming home from Iraq with disabilities. The list includes Colonial Life Insurance, and the corporate office of Time Warner Cable, a unit of Time Warner Inc.

“Many businesses are happy to hire veterans because of the traits that veterans have built up in the military,” said Ott.

Maytag Corp has come up with a rigorous program that helps soldiers turn into repair technicians. They believe that this is strongly benefiting their company because they get high-quality workers.

President of Maytag services, Art Learmonth stated, “They have great discipline. They have great technical skills. They understand how to follow orders and follow procedures.”

“The work ethic and attention to detail shown by many former military members is much higher than an average citizen,” said Snee.

Paul Adams, a current Maytag technician, had been in the Army for four years was skeptical about his job prospects. A Maytag recruiter saw Adams resume and hired him and 14 other veterans and put them through a “boot camp” where they learned appliance repair and then followed a mentor in the company.

Ware, a former airplane technician, was brought into the program and found it beneficial and was hired in a week. He said that the boot camp helps many soldiers because it is what they are used to in military training.

“Soldiers really need to realize what they did in the military was special and they need to highlight what they have built,” said Ott.