Hiring veterans is good business: USAA CEO

This Veterans Day comes as the country prepares for change, to usher in President-elect Donald Trump in January, but the message for those who served our country remains unchanged.

“We’re asking folks at 11 a.m. ET on Veterans Day to reach out, whether you reach out by phone or reach out personally, and just connect with a veteran in your network. Building that community is so important,” USAA CEO Wayne Peacock told FOX Business. 

“We’re going to be supporting anyone who wants to help us and join ‘Face the Fight’ and match their donations dollar for dollar as we continue to build a great coalition and really make an impact on veterans’ suicide,” he added. Suicide rates among veterans are 57% percent higher than the national average.

USAA, the leading financial services firm serving 13.5 million members of the U.S. military and veterans, will also match up to $1 million in November.

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Another way to support veterans is to hire these men and women after their military careers.  

“Less than 20% of folks who leave the military actually retire. So, they’re leaving, and then they’ve got a huge transition to make,” Peacock said while encouraging corporate America to do more.

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“Veterans come with a sense of purpose. They come with hard work. They come with a desire to improve every day. They bring incredible leadership skills to the table. And you can teach them because they have been trained to be in a learning environment throughout their entire career. I think we’ve made a lot of progress. I think there is more work to be done,” he said.  

Peacock cited Home Depot as one of the leading corporations hiring veterans with more than 35,000, according to the company. Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, who died last week at age 95, has donated more than $250 million through 2024 from his Marcus Foundation to veterans’ causes, making him one of the largest single veteran donors. 

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Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, to name a few, have also dedicated efforts to hiring veterans.

Peacock, who spoke to FOX Business before the election, had this message for the incoming White House administration.

“I think the message to the next administration would be to continue to invest in our great military and whether we’re investing in kind of our weaponry and the tools for the battle tomorrow or we are investing in our people,” he said. “Then I would say that we have to take care of the people who have served, those who are serving today so that we cut some of the challenges, especially for our enlisted folks, the challenges of food insecurity, the challenges of child care, the challenges of housing, so that we make it easy for folks to be able to serve and defend our country” he added. 

The challenges facing many Americans, such as inflation, rising housing and child care costs, can be magnified for veterans.

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Homelessness among veterans is another crisis that the government is dealing with. Last month, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced it had found housing for more than 47,925 veterans. This was the largest number of veterans housed in a single year since 2019, the department noted.