Memory on Vietnam Veterans Day 2014 Homecoming 1968 - Getting My Old Job Back When I returned to ‘The World’ after a tour in the Tonkin Gulf in 1968, I needed a job right away so I visited my old employer looking to get my job back. While going to college, I worked as an engineering tech for Twin City Testing Lab is St Paul MN. Pay wasn’t great but I liked the work. That was the job I wanted. So I visited my old boss Dwight Jennings, and was told ‘never thought I would see you again - we don’t have any jobs for vets now, and you’re really not a vet since you volunteered for the Navy.’ When I reminded him about laws pertaining to a veteran’s right to get his old job back after return to civilian status, Dwight referred me to his boss, VP Engineering Norm Henning. Norm said ‘sorry, no jobs for vets.’ Then I asked Norm if he watched TV news at 10 oclock. He assured me he did. I told him to be sure to watch it the next day because he would see himself and the Lab on the news along with a bunch of vets who would be camping in the parking lot while protesting their no jobs for vets policy. They changed their minds and I got a job, but not the job I had before. After about two weeks, I was out of there bound for a whole new job but I think I made my point that we ex-Navy guys were indeed vets - Vietnam vets who they needed to treat properly. We served our country and now simply wanted to return to being civilians and get our lives back on track - including our old jobs. Maybe you wonder why I mention names here? Well, folks, these people didn’t show respect for us vets - and their company policy backed that disrespect. I haven’t forgotten and neither should they.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 16:06:47 +0000
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