Suiting Warriors
The folks in Wilmington, Delaware city government and WITN22 wanted us to tell you about “Suiting Warriors” an organization that helps veterans by getting them their first suit after their service;
This WITN22 “Spotlight on Wilmington” highlights an amazing program helping US War Veterans transition into a new career by providing them with free, professional clothing for their job interviews. To learn more about the program please visit www.suitingwarriors.org.
Category: Veterans Issues
Don’t know whether or not this is just some Hollywood cliche that I picked up years ago, but don’t/didn’t they give freed prisoners a suit and ten bucks to help them start their new life “on the outside” afresh?
“Suiting Warriors was established with one simple idea…
That one suit could change a veterans life in a positive direction.”
I’m sorry, but this makes it sound like just having served one’s country and being discharged was a bad thing, a bad circumstance something that must be overcome. (Like just getting out of prison.)
So somebody help me here: I got out of the USAF in Dec 1983, with a tidy little sum of coin (for a single/engaged young man) in my pockets. I could easily afford a suit. Is this no longer the case these days?
Or maybe “Suiting Warriors” is just reaching out to those veterans who are under some kind of hardship circumstances?
” … not all them [veterans] can afford a new thousand-dollar suit on military pay … “? I don’t know where Mr. Beach shops, but I can’t afford a thousand-dollar suit on CIVILIAN pay.
Hey, it’s their (the donors’) money. God bless ’em, and those they help …
On a related note. USAF is offering Early retirement again. Quick question for the masses here. With everything going on and the draw down changes should an E-7 take it and retire a year early? (i.e. 1 Aug 14 rather than 1 Aug 15) Diff in pay would only be about $150.
To add to it, degrees are in same field as having been worked in the last 18+ or so years, so finding a job on the outside really isn’t that big an issue.
Thoughts?
-Ish
@3: Never served long enough to get to retirement but look at it this way.
Take a good, long and honest look at how good or how bad things are right now. Ask yourself if holding out for one more year for an extra $150 is worth the aggravation.
Extra $150 a month or a year?
If it’s a month, well, staying an extra year to get an extra $1,800 a year sounds like the right course of action. If nothing else it’s helping to ofset rising taxes and other expenses over the next couple of decades. 🙂
A year for a roughly 10 percent difference? Unless the job waiting for you has a BIG pay jump, it’s worth sucking up the extra year.
That being said, if you were a guy on the boat, knew you were getting out, and you knew the boat would be in Hong Kong, Korea, PI, etc., why WOULDN’T you get a suit?
Best one I ever owned was custom tailored (including shirts and pants), cost me under $300 (in 1995) and I wore it for almost 15 years. Granted, outside job interviews, weddings, funerals, and the occasional formal dinner, I had little need for it, but still…
Try getting that in the states for under double to triple that amount.
Dress Barn has suits for women that do not cost $1,000. Jessica London and Roaman’s (catalog sales) also have business oriented clothing for women, and none of it costs $1,000. Jones New York outlets has all sizes, Xsmall to XXlarge in women’s suits, suitable for interviews and work not one of them costs $1,000.
I don’t know where those people get their prices, but I’ve never paid that kind of money for any piece of clothing. And I’m curious about why they have three colors that are lethal for an interview: electric yellow-green, purple, pink. Unless you’re going for some sort of creative position, those colors are a turnoff at banks, law firms, and insurance companies.