Home Depot, Government Launch Military Veterans Jobs Initiative
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2004 – Home Depot executives and senior government
leaders launched a new public-private employment initiative for military
veterans and their spouses here today.
Left to right: Dennis Donovan, Home Depot's executive vice
president for human resources, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J.
Principi, Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, Undersecretary of Defense for
Personnel and Readiness David S.C. Chu, and Bob Nardelli, Home Depot's
chairman, president and chief executive officer pose for a photo Sept. 21 at
the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Photo by Gerry J.
Gilmore (Click photo for screen-resolution image); high-resolution image available.
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Operation Career Front – cosponsored by the 25-year-old building supply
company, the Defense Department, the Department of Labor and the Department of
Veterans Affairs -- was unveiled during a kick-off ceremony held at the
National Press Club.
The initiative, according to Bob Nardelli, Home Depot's chairman, president and
chief executive officer, was created to provide job opportunities for military
veterans, retirees, National Guard members, reservists, and military spouses
and other family members.
Military veterans, Nardelli noted, make exceptional employees who bring "focus,
discipline and a commitment to excellence" to the workplace.
They "have never let me down," Nardelli asserted, noting there are now more
than 15,000 military veterans among Home Depot's 300,000 employees at more than
1,800 stores. He said the company is expected to create more than 20,000 new
jobs this year.
Private-public programs like Operation Career Front, Nardelli said, demonstrate
patriotism and are a win-win situation for business and military veterans
alike.
David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness;
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi, Secretary of Labor Elaine L.
Chao; and Dennis Donovan, Home Depot's executive vice president for human
resources, accompanied Nardelli at the ceremony.
Chu, who noted that the joint initiative was a year in the making, saluted Home
Depot's desire to support military veterans and spouses. However, he said,
Operation Career Front "is much more than just providing job opportunities at
the Home Depot." It is also, he said, "a reaffirmation of our commitment and
resolve to support the men and women who wear the uniform."
Near the end of the ceremony, Nardelli introduced Glen Sykes, a retired Marine
Corps master sergeant, and Dana Chango, the wife of an Army staff sergeant
stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky. Sykes and Chango, Nardelli pointed out, are
exceptional Home Depot employees.
Chango, the manager of a Home Depot outlet in Clarkesville, Tenn., credits Home
Depot with providing her the opportunity to work at different stores as her
husband is transferred across the country.
Operation Career Front, she said, affords Home Depot "the opportunity to get
some good associates."
Sykes, the hardware department supervisor at the company's Sandy Springs store
in Atlanta, noted that Operation Career Front presents "a great opportunity"
for former service members "to utilize their leadership and management skills."
Biographies:
Labor Secretary Elaine L.
Chao
Vet
erans Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi
Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness David S.C. Chu
| Glen Sykes, a retired Marine Corps' master sergeant, left, and
Dana Chango, the wife of an Army staff sergeant stationed at Fort Campbell,
Ky., center, meet with Bob Nardelli, Home Depot's chairman, president and chief
executive officer, during Operation Career Front's Sept. 21 kick-off ceremony
at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Sykes and Chango are exceptional
Home Depot employees, Nardelli said. Operation Career Front, a public-private
partnership between Home Depot, DoD, the Department of Labor, and the
Department of Veterans Affairs, was created to provide job opportunities for
military veterans, retirees, National Guard members, reservists, and military
spouses and other family members. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore
| | High resolution photo
| | David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and
readiness, standing, addresses participants at the Operation Career Front
ceremony held Sept. 21 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., as Bob
Nardelli, Home Depot's chairman, president and chief executive officer, looks
on. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore
| | High resolution photo
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