I Am The American Legion - Val Nicholas

In 1974, Val Nicholas enlisted in the Army and took the oath of service. “We all raised our hands and said we would protect the country,” he says. “But we also promised to look out for each other and, even though we’ve left the military, we never put our hands back down. So we have an obligation to each other, to continue to serve each other.”

As a service officer at his American Legion post in New Jersey, Nicholas helped establish an alliance between NBC and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has produced more than 800 Hiring Our Heroes career fairs. As vice president and creative director of NBC News, he was in a unique position to help broker such a deal.

Working with the American Legion Department of New Jersey, Nicholas arranged for many of the career fairs to be conducted at Legion posts. These job fairs hire more veterans on a percentage basis than larger ones “because it’s all local,” he says. “At the big job fairs we get the large corporations, from Wall Street to Walmart. But at the local job fairs you get Bob’s Hardware or Joe’s Plumbing down the street. People know each other, and they want to hire local talent.”

 

The initiative has spread to posts in other states. “Hopefully it will become part and parcel of what we do,” Nicholas says. “All of this effort to help veterans springs from the need to keep that promise to help each other out, and the Legion opened my eyes to a way I can do that, to make sure that we don’t leave anybody behind.”

Branch of Service:Army (1974-1976)

MOS: Multichannel transmission systems operator

Rank:Specialist 4

American Legion Post:Sgt. Clendenon Newell Post 1, Leonia, N.J.

Years in the Legion: 15

Veterans Activities

  • Post service officer
  • Sons of The American Legion squadron vice commander
  • Advisory board member, USO and Blue Star Families
  • Founding member, NBCUniversal Veterans Network and Got Your 6