Pipefitters Carry the Torch for Veterans, With Training to Reintroduce Life Skills

By Lucy Bodilly

Tacoma, Wash. - Military veterans who finish training offered by the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters are finding ways to weld their military careers to civilian life, The Veterans In Piping program, or VIP, invites military personnel who have left the service to become welders. Vets not only learn a trade, they learn how to adjust to civilian life. The 18-week course includes two weeks of transition training and 16 weeks of intensive welding. Graduates who can pass the certification test on just one weld are then UA apprentices and can make as much as $20 per hour plus benefits.

Miller Company, a safety equipment company in Wisconsin, donated welding gear to the students in the second class of pipefitters training course. (Photo by Lucy Bodilly)

The students also learn how to rejoin their families and the workforce by learning to differentiate between what saved their life in the military and what creates a life outside.

“If you were a sergeant in the military, you can’t come home, bark orders and expect your coworkers or family to jump to attention,” says Anne A. St. Eloi, a UA representative.

Several union programs reach out to veterans, but VIP goes farther by offering transition training in addition to helping veterans find a job, says St. Eloi. “We have counseling, job training, interview training and invite contractors to come and visit the program,” St. Eloi says.

All but one of the 16 students that graduated with the first class are now employed either in construction or shipbuilding in the Puget Sound area.

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The program started at Local 26 in Tacoma, Wash., which is now working with its second group of vets.

The veterans are highly valued students, says welding instructor Mike Stull. “We had 75% of the first class pass the exam, as opposed 40% in an average accelerated class,” he says. “Veterans are mature, accountable, drug free and have good leadership skills. This group is even better than the first.”

In the first group of students, several certified for three types of weld and are making the maximum amount of money for a firstyear apprentice, says Stull.

Classes will continue in Lacey, Wash. at the UA Local 26 training facility and are expected to start soon at Camp Pendleton, Calif. At Camp Pendleton, 16 students who are still in the military will be trained while still enlisted and become welders when they muster out.

The transition training is lead by Judea Bost’n of Bates Technical College, Tacoma. Bost’n, who holds a doctorate in education, focuses on self-image and learning problems that may be caused by war injuries and posttraumatic stress.

Richard Doolittle (left) a welding student and welding instructor George Glassman go over the basics at the UA 26 training facility.

Bost’n has worked on similar issues with veterans since the Vietnam War. She says the signature wound of the Iraq war is brain damage caused by improvised explosive devices. “The explosion can cause a concussion when sound waves go through the skull resulting in memory problems, which can lead to frustration.” The injury makes it harder to retain newly learned skills.

Mike Sterling, a former Army sergeant and current student, served for 22 years in the Army and completed four tours in Iraq as a branch operations sergeant. He was hit 14 times with IEDs.

“I could have just retired, but I wanted to be part of a team and have a career and to make something happen,” Sterling, 41, says. He adds that the readjustment training has helped him feel calmer and made it easier to be around his family. Now, he’ll act as the shop steward for the class and help with safety training, attendance and cleanliness.

“We show them how military life is different than civilian life,” says Bost’n, who works to help the students learn about themselves and regroup as a team in which individuality is respected. Family members work on the same questions and tests, “giving the veterans somebody to debrief with,” Bost’n adds. “It will either strengthen a good relationship or let a bad one die a natural death.”

Christy Heiser, who has a degree in animal science and served in the first Gulf War and the Air National Guard, says she is in the program because her father was a welder. “He didn’t think girls should weld, but I always wanted to,” she says.

UA General President William Hite, a veteran, backed the program. “because it is the right thing to do. The training is completely paid for by the union,” He would not disclose the total price of the training program, but hopes it will expand to bases across the country.