Operation IMPACT Makes News Across Divisions > I&TSD Leads NG Effort

I&TSD Leads Northrop Grumman Effort to Help Severely Injured Soldiers
[August 2005]

[Originally published in Information & Technical Solutions Division (I&TSD) Reporter]

Like many of us, Ward Critz has a number of personal ties to the soldiers serving in Iraq. When a young lieutenant who was a close friend of his high-school aged children suffered the loss of an arm while stationed in Iraq, Ward wrestled with ways to help him — and others like him — continue to have a productive life and ambition for the future.

At the fall 2004 Association for the United States Army (AUSA) annual meeting in Washington, DC, Ward, a senior program manager in I&TSD’s Training and Simulation line of business, struck up a conversation with an old Army buddy, Lieutenant General G. “Buster” Hagenbeck, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for personnel. Their conversation quickly turned to Hagenbeck’s new responsibility — the Disabled Soldier Support System (DS3), an Army program providing services and support to severely disabled soldiers and their families.

Gen. Hagenbeck was avidly promoting the then six-month-old DS3 program. Ward’s interest piqued in learning that one of the program’s purposes was to transition severely disabled young soldiers from military service to civilian life by preparing them to find meaningful employment.

“I immediately thought that Northrop Grumman could hire and provide technical training and education for these returning heros,” Ward said. Ward returned from the AUSA meeting and immediately went to the top — informing Pam Sullivan (I&TSD vice president and general manager) and Phil Coose (Training and Simulation line of business director) about this important new program. With these conversations, he set a ball in motion that continues to roll.

Pam Sullivan set funds aside to support Ward’s involvement and quickly involved Kymberlee Dwinell (I&TSD’s Human Resources [HR] director at that time), who mobilized HR support within I&TSD to begin targeting DS3 soldiers. Alice Chin, HR generalist, took the lead in developing the process and communication tools to support this new program. In the meantime, Ward began interfacing with other military programs established to place severely disabled soldiers in industry, such as the DoD’s Military Severely Injured Joint Support Center, the Marine for Life program, the Air Force Palace Hart program, Veterans Affairs (VA), and a new Navy program.

“This is not a charity program; we are looking for a win-win situation for the former soldier and our company,” Ward said. “Of greatest concern are young service members who don’t have much work experience or education. They have economic responsibilities that disability income and pensions don’t cover. We want to target these veterans and
their spouses and offer legitimate jobs that keep them productive members of the community. I mention the spouses because, in some cases, they will have to become the family’s breadwinner because of the severity of the veteran’s disability.”

Phil sees this effort as two parts: identifying and recruiting the disabled veteran and creating opportunities for them within Northrop Grumman. “We’re using contacts within the services to help identify these service members,” he said. “Many of them were discharged before programs such as DS3 began, and we have to locate them to discuss a future with us.”

Finding and locating eligible service members is a challenge. No master list of severely disabled service members exists; government databases cannot be searched for such service members; and laws prohibit the services from freely releasing information about members’ medical conditions. Therefore, it is essential to establish an outreach program so they know to contact us.

“We expect this effort will be facilitated as the government’s support services mature,” Phil continued. “The DoD, Army, and other services are building databases that identify and track these soldiers so they can be made aware of the programs and employers who are anxious to place them.”

As a parallel effort, I&TSD has prepared for the DS3 initiative by establishing support among its widespread network of managers and programs.

“We are working within our division, and hopefully soon throughout the corporation, to establish a network of people who would look creatively within their organizations for jobs and opportunities,” Phil said. “Many severely injured soldiers, especially the younger ones, entered the service with a high school education — they don’t come in with degrees or extensive work experience.”

Phil continued, “We will have to be especially cognizant to offer them positions in cities where they can live. I don’t expect any of them to move far from family and support groups to take a job with us. If their family’s from Seattle, we hope to have a network of mentors and advocates in Washington to find them a position there. We’re putting a lot of emphasis on this now because we want to have jobs waiting for soldiers, not soldiers waiting for jobs.”

Briefings to increase awareness have been presented to managers who have direct hiring responsibilities. A special Available Talent list has been prepared for severely disabled service members for distribution across the division. Kymberlee Dwinell has briefed the HR community, including the corporate VPs, sector VPs, and HR directors, to solicit support at a broader level. HR hopes to identify a corporate lead or champion for major organizational elements within Northrop Grumman who would be responsible for promulgating the program throughout their regions.

Vendors and Training Opportunities
"We want to leverage our business contacts and vendors to get them involved in supporting these service members,” Alice added. “I spoke with the director for Government and Education Markets for Skillsoft, our eLearning vendor. He is very interested and energized about getting involved with these programs. Many soldiers don’t have degrees, and many Northrop Grumman positions often require degrees. Skillsoft is willing to offer free access to their training curriculum so that these soldiers can get technical training that will provide opportunities for their futures.”

“Our vendors could be a tremendous help,” Ward echoed. “They can be another resource for providing jobs and support. By talking with all the other companies we do business with, we can provide wider outreach and opportunities for these veterans.”

Debbie Ortega, I&TSD HR coordinator, now fills the primary point of contact role for this program. Alice Chin has transferred to the Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division (SRD) and continues to be the point of contact for her division. Debbie has begun coordinating efforts with sector staff to establish guidelines and begin implementation of this program across the entire sector. She is making strong progress with developing an internal and external marketing/awareness campaign, which will be launched soon. Debbie is also personally interfacing with all candidates currently in the program; several of the candidates have been interviewed, and it is believed that placement is imminent.

If you are interested in supporting this effort, please contact Ward at james.critz@ngc.com, or Debbie at debbie.d.ortega@ngc.com.