by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - It was earlier this year when the island saw its largest deployment of National Guard members and with their impending return early next year, a new initiative was launched aimed at helping them transition back into civilian life.

General Benny Paulino said, "Guam's sons and daughters have left their families in the name of freedom risking their happiness and safety to protect tour nation. Unfortunately, about 287 soldiers from this group were unemployed before leaving the island if nothing is done to address this problem, our soldiers, already challenging trying to transition to civilian life will even be more difficult."

And today Governor Eddie Calvo, the Guam National Guard and close to a dozen public and private partners joined together to celebrate the launch of the "Keep Your Guard Up!" initiative. "And what we would like to see accomplished is that when they come back, that there is a welcoming island with arms held wide open to receive them back into the community and to give them those opportunities that this island has," he said.

Specifically, the Keep Your Guard Up initiative would 1. Build a coalition of government and private sector stakeholders to address the problem, 2. Compile a list of available jobs that soldiers and airmen can apply for and 3. Prepare our soldiers for a successful career through training and education.

Adjutant general Benny Paulino says having a job not helps with the transition but provides stability and for the health and well being of our heroes returning home. "If you don't have a job, they will be idle, they'll be worried, they'll be concerned with how they're going to support themselves and their families, and so for the health of the force and the for the betterment of the community, we came up with this concept," he said.

It was further noted that soldiers are already training in the field and are being assisted in building their resumes and creating robust applications.

The Guam Community College is one of several partners on this initiative and fittingly so as it has just been identified as one of the "best for vets" colleges for 2014. GCC president Mary Okada said, "We will be forming a student organization on campus with veterans to serve as mentors for our returning Guardsmen and those attending college on campus, and there are a lot of opportunities for them to earn education and training and we're very excited to participate in this program."

Other community partners include the DOL, AHRD, Chamber, GCC, GHRA, GDOE, Guam Society for Human Resource Management and Guam Contractors Association. GHRA president Mary Rhodes says the initiative falls inline with her organization's workforce development plan.

"These programs exist whether through AHRD, Department of Labor, GCC, Trades Academy, Guam Contractors Association. The resources are there and it's so great just to pull them all together and have them work together 012405 because I think that's been the missing link with a lot of great ideas is the cohesiveness and the collaboration," she said.