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Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Veteran for hire
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In June 2001, he graduated from high school. The next month, he shipped off to boot camp.
Cyril L.Vickers, a graduate of West Philadelphia High, could have gone to college, maybe even played a sport.
“Coming out of high school, I had academic scholarships to Penn State University and Drexel,” he told me. “I had a few football scholarships, too.”
Yet Vickers followed in his Dad’s footsteps. His father had spent nearly two decades in the Army. The younger Vickers was even born in Germany, where his father was stationed at one point.
So he, too, became a military man. The Navy. He spent numerous months on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea. Jets took off and landed 24/7. Vickers liked the excitement despite the drawbacks.
Like sleep deprivation.
“Being on an aircraft carrier is like trying to sleep underneath an airport,” said Vickers, 26, of Stone Mountain. “You might shut your eyes, but you’re not asleep. Your body just finds a way to adjust. Jets are taking off on the front of the carrier and landing on the back. The whole time we’re just doing doughnuts in the Mediterranean Sea. The only time they aren’t flying is when the boat is turning.”
On deck, Vickers was a visual communicator, responsible for identifying vessels that came within the vicinity of the carrier.
“New technology has phased that job out, made it obsolete,” he said. “That’s why I got out of the Navy. My time was up anyway. I don’t have any regrets about the military, though. It’s a great stepping stone that can do different things for different people. It helped me understand how to survive and take care of certain situations.
After the service, he moved to Hampton, Va., where his father lived. He took several courses at ECPI College of Technology. He eventually landed a job with Nextel and transferred it to Atlanta to be near his infant daughter, Mikayla Cheerese France.
I noticed Vickers last week in a restaurant. He was poring over the want ads in a city magazine. Trying to survive and earn a living. Job hunting. It’s been that way since late 2007, when he was laid off as a technician at Nextel Sprint.
“I was terminated the day before Thanksgiving,” he said. “I was good at what I did, but it was because of the Nextel/Sprint merger. I filed for unemployment, but I haven’t worked since.”
Vickers spends his days visiting staffing agencies. He follows up on leads about businesses or companies that might be hiring. Good thing he’s in metro Atlanta.
“Things aren’t so bad,” said Ed Freeman, co-owner of Employment Atlanta Staffing. “There is always a demand. Atlanta is so diverse. It’s not like we are a Pittsburgh, where we rely on steel manufacturing. We are into so many different things.”
Vickers stands willing to try anything field.
“I have even been to Foot Locker - places like that,” he said. “I would love to get back working in a network operations center or call-center. It’s what I have been doing the last three or four years.”
If you are hiring, or know someone who is, give Vickers a call. He can be reached at 215-868-1803.
Rick Badie updates his blog daily. Readers can join in on the discussion of people, subjects and topics he writes about by posting comments in the blog or contacting Badie personally. He can be reached at 770-263-3875 or via e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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