Retired Marine Lt. Col. Kevin Schmiegel shares on the Tango Alpha Lima podcast how ZeroMils is breaking the broken veteran narrative by creating a military thriving movement.
Kevin M. Schmiegel began to question whether he was making the right decision to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps post-graduation from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., as he watched friends preparing for higher education and careers. But it was the words spoken by a priest on campus, who saw and learned of Schmiegel’s troubles, that gave him a life calling.
“He placed a hand on my shoulder and said, ‘We are all called to serve in different ways.’ Ever since that has been my guidepost,” said Schmiegel, the special guest on this week’s Tango Alpha Lima podcast, who went on to serve 20 years in the Marines and retired as lieutenant colonel.
Schmiegel’s life calling has been to bridge the civilian-military divide. He achieved this in 2011 by founding Hiring Our Heroes when the unemployment rate for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan was a staggering 30%.
“I used to bite my tongue when employers would say, ‘We’re doing the right thing,’” by hiring veterans as the perception was that veterans coming back from war in Iraq and Afghanistan were broken, Schmiegel said. “Three years later, they realized it was right for their businesses. That is why we drove down veteran unemployment from 10 percent to 3 percent today.”
But after leaving Hiring Our Heroes in 2013, Schmiegel lost his identity, sense of purpose, tribe, and was self-medicating. “For three or four years I was in deep depression.” Until he had another priest-like moment when a Vietnam veteran asked what was troubling him.
That moment eventually led to Schmiegel founding ZeroMils in response to a growing trend of people talking about the veteran community “in a way that wasn’t a true reflection of who we are.”
It was the broken veteran narrative.
“To change the broken narrative, we can’t just talk about our struggles, we have to talk about our strengths, we have to talk about the triumphs and not just the trials. We have to find balance. We as veterans choose how we are seen, how we are heard, and how people speak about us and show us to the public.”
“If we want to change the narrative, it’s on us. And that’s what we’re trying to create (at ZeroMils). A military thriving movement.”
The mission of ZeroMils is to give veterans, servicemembers and their families the five things they need to thrive – meaningful employment; sense of purpose through continued service; connected community and tribe; health and well-being (physical, spiritual, mental and emotional); and kitbag (things to seek self-improvement on).
“We all struggle. It’s not peculiar to the veteran community. And I think we have a chance to lead.”
Also, co-hosts Joe Worley and Stacy Pearsall chat about:
• Celebrating America’s 250th birthday through physical fitness, mental wellness and community service in the Legion’s USA 250 Challenge.
• A Coast Guard hero who saved the lives of 165 victims from the floods in Texas.
• The police chase of an excavator down a highway in South Carolina.
You can also check out the more than 300 Tango Alpha Lima podcasts available in both audio and video formats here. You can also download episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other major podcast-hosting sites. The video version is available at the Legion’s YouTube channel.
- Tango Alpha Lima