Helping veterans help themselves

The daily reports from Iraq highlight just how difficult and taxing a soldier's job can be. Equally hard: the transition from the battlefield to civilian life as a military veteran.

I know quite a few veterans, and have witnessed their struggles coping with -- or escaping from -- the harmful psychological effects of war. And readjusting to family life and 9-to-5 careers is even more challenging.

MATCOR is addressing these issues through our Veterans Training Program, where we teach vets corrosion testing and engineering. The program gives veterans useful technical skills, and helps them get in on the ground floor in a tight job market.

This is often the first 'real world' job for soldiers who joined the military right out of school. And it gives older veterans the chance to re-enter the working world, in the event they do not return to their former employers. We also benefit from the skills of those who trained with the Army Corps of Engineers.

I'll be writing more about this program in coming posts, and hope to share some stories of veterans who have successfully completed our program.

Will corrosion cost more than the Iraq War?

I was just in our Houston office, checking on our military veterans training program. We've recruited and trained a number of veterans who want to follow an engineering career path after serving Uncle Sam. The candidates combine their military skills with cutting-edge engineering to protect our global infrastructure.

A number of the veterans in the program spent time in Iraq, and it got me thinking about other threats to our national security -- namely, our aging wastewater infrastructure.

We as a nation must combat this problem before it makes a serious impact on our quality of life. After doing a little research, I found a few interesting points that illustrate the gravity of our situation.

For starters, a recent report from the U.S. House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Development states a finding by the states a finding by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that over the next 20 years the country will need to invest $300 billion to $400 billion to restore and replace our aging wastewater infrastructure.

In another recent report, Colorado senator Ken Gordon pegged the cost of fighting terrorism at more than $500 billion. Fixing our aging wastewater infrastructure might cost as much or more than that.

It's going to take a mammoth effort, but it's crucial to preserve our infrastructure security, and, by extension, maintain the level of comfort our engineers have secured for us.

Governments from the municipal to state level in all 50 states are pouring money into aging water and wastewater systems. The fact that governments are taking an active stance to guard against corrosion is good news. However, if cathodic protection isn't part of the solution, they're flushing our tax dollars down the drain.