NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — Find out how hiring our nation’s wounded warriors and veterans is good for business at the Department of the Navy’s 4^th Annual Wounded Warrior and Veteran Hiring and Support Conference May 28-29 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The first day of the free two-day conference, employers, human resources professionals, hiring managers and military leaders will discuss the benefits, challenges and resolutions to hiring and retaining wounded warriors and veterans. There will also be opportunities to develop relationships between the private sector and military transition commands as well as network and share knowledge. Several wounded warriors and veterans will share their perspectives during a panel discussion.

Take Josh Ransford, for example, who, after three Iraqi deployments and a medical discharge from the Marines in 2013, found his career plans changed forever.

“I had planned on making a 20-year or longer career [in the Marines], but some injuries I received limited my ability to serve in a military combative capacity,” he said. “It was incredibly frustrating and intimidating knowing that I was forced into a very different world. I no longer had a career and was worried about how I was going to provide for my family.”

Since January, Ransford has worked as a logistics intern at NAVAIR’s Fleet Readiness Center Southeast in Jacksonville, Florida. “The biggest attraction to working for NAVAIR is that I can still support the warfighter,” he said. “There is no monotony, and every day is different from the last.”

The second day of the conference features the Hiring Heroes Career Fair with more than 60 federal agencies and private industry employers with job opportunities for wounded warriors, veterans and their spouses.

To register for the free conference, visit: http://www.navsea.navy.mil/WWemployment/default.aspx.

The Wounded Warrior and Veteran Hiring and Support Conference is sponsored by Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; and co-hosted by Naval Air Systems Command; Naval Sea Systems Command; and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. DoN’s Office of Civilian Human Resources, Navy Safe Harbor and the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service are supporting the conference.