Forest Service seeking veterans for firefighter roles

The U.S. Forest Service has produced a new video to recruit veterans into careers as wildland firefighters.

A New Front Line” includes interviews with current Forest Service firefighters who are putting their military training and skills to use battling wildfires.

The Forest Service is within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has worked with The American Legion to increase outreach, recruitment, hiring and retention of veterans. The American Legion signed a memorandum of understanding in 2012 to promote career opportunities and work with USDA to help veterans find careers in the department’s many agencies and federal services.

“USDA’s staff across the country now includes more than 11,000 veterans,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wrote in a blog post celebrating Veterans Day last November. “In recent years, we’ve expanded our commitment to bringing on board more former servicemembers, participating in a wide variety of veterans’ hiring efforts coordinated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense. We’ve also created a USDA Veterans Employment Program office, through which any veteran who contacts us has access to counseling, career help, and consideration for employment.”

For more information: http://www.veteransfirecorps.org/.