thedrifter
05-17-09, 07:52 AM
May 17, 2009
Jobless veteran looks to the future
Sean Dobbin
Staff writer
Every time he was given shore leave, Abdiel Navarro would go to the beach. The ocean in Guam was so gorgeous "you could step in the water and actually see your feet."
His four years with the U.S. Marine Corps included trips to Guam, Japan, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines. He also served a tour in Iraq.
Iraq was not Guam. He lost two of his friends — one to a car bomb, the other to a mortar shell — and returned home with shoulder and lower back injuries. But he called it "the greatest experience of my life," and is thankful that he came back in one piece and that he didn't have to kill anyone.
Now 25, the Rochester resident is fighting a different battle. He has been out of work for about five months after losing his job at Strong Memorial Hospital, where he had worked in maintenance for a year and a half.
Hispanic men in the 25-to-34 age bracket have a U.S. unemployment rate of 13 percent, the highest since the severe recession of the early 1980s.
Shortly after losing his job, Navarro was evicted from his apartment, and he now lives at the Richards House, a shelter within the Veterans' Outreach Center for displaced veterans.
Despite the hardships, Navarro remains upbeat. He's using resources available at the Richards House and wants to take advantage of the G.I. Bill, which will cover his tuition at any state school in the country.
"I've had companies contact me, but I had to have education to get those kinds of jobs," he said. "That's the key right there, the school. You need the education."
College will also help fulfill the fourth of Navarro's five life goals, which is to attend business school. He already has accomplished the first three: graduate high school, join the Marines and get out of the Marines.
He hopes the fifth — to start his own business — is on the horizon.
"I don't let anything bring me down," Navarro said. "That's what people should be like. Don't let nothing bother you."
SDOBBIN@DemocratandChronicle.com
Ellie
Jobless veteran looks to the future
Sean Dobbin
Staff writer
Every time he was given shore leave, Abdiel Navarro would go to the beach. The ocean in Guam was so gorgeous "you could step in the water and actually see your feet."
His four years with the U.S. Marine Corps included trips to Guam, Japan, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines. He also served a tour in Iraq.
Iraq was not Guam. He lost two of his friends — one to a car bomb, the other to a mortar shell — and returned home with shoulder and lower back injuries. But he called it "the greatest experience of my life," and is thankful that he came back in one piece and that he didn't have to kill anyone.
Now 25, the Rochester resident is fighting a different battle. He has been out of work for about five months after losing his job at Strong Memorial Hospital, where he had worked in maintenance for a year and a half.
Hispanic men in the 25-to-34 age bracket have a U.S. unemployment rate of 13 percent, the highest since the severe recession of the early 1980s.
Shortly after losing his job, Navarro was evicted from his apartment, and he now lives at the Richards House, a shelter within the Veterans' Outreach Center for displaced veterans.
Despite the hardships, Navarro remains upbeat. He's using resources available at the Richards House and wants to take advantage of the G.I. Bill, which will cover his tuition at any state school in the country.
"I've had companies contact me, but I had to have education to get those kinds of jobs," he said. "That's the key right there, the school. You need the education."
College will also help fulfill the fourth of Navarro's five life goals, which is to attend business school. He already has accomplished the first three: graduate high school, join the Marines and get out of the Marines.
He hopes the fifth — to start his own business — is on the horizon.
"I don't let anything bring me down," Navarro said. "That's what people should be like. Don't let nothing bother you."
SDOBBIN@DemocratandChronicle.com
Ellie