Nifty multi-agency website helps troops shift to civilian life

The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have beefed up their Transition Assistance Program for troops leaving the armed services. They have set up a one-stop website with the Labor Department replete with resources to ease the way from military to civilian life and careers.

These include online career transition courses, an employment hub with tips on how to craft a resume and handle job interviews, a national resource directory for ill or wounded troops and a guide on how to file disability claims early.

Transition planning also has backing from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who vowed support for the project at a joint press conference last Thursday.

I had none of these resources available to me when I left the Marine Corps in 1967. My transition amounted to heading back to New York City on my lonesome. The development of this website is a sign that bureaucracies can change for the better.