An unexpected battle

Tracey Cooper-Harris went back to school after serving in the army for 12 years, discharged in 2003. While deployed in Iraq, she worked as an animal care specialist looking after drug and bomb-sniffing dogs. When she returned home, she discovered she would need two years of schooling to get a special license to use her veterinary skills. The 38-year-old from Pasadena said her friends who worked as medics faced the same problem.

Rather than relearning what she already knew, she earned a degree in kinesiology from Pasadena City College with the goal of becoming a physical therapist, but that didn’t pan out. Now she’s looking into government jobs.

Tired of politicians saying they support the troops with little concrete action, Cooper-Harris went to Washington in April with a veterans advocacy group to lobby for benefits.

“People say they support the troops. If you really support the troops, hire us,” Cooper-Harris said.

When asked if she thought a veteran competing with a civilian for a job should get preference, she said she didn’t want to compare the two, but thought military service should be more highly regarded among employers.

“There’s a lot of good experience there with all the training that we go through. The sad fact is employers don’t necessarily see that,” she said.

Glendale has a yearlong rental assistance program that subsidizes veteran housing, a program officials would like to see continue, but funds may not be available to do so, said Deputy Housing Director Peter Zovak.

The Verdugo Jobs Center received a $465,000 grant from the state to subsidize wages of veterans in a manufacturing training program. After being unemployed for almost two years, Albert Viray, who served in the Army for five years through 2008 and did two tours in Iraq, got a job in September fabricating metals at Accurate Manufacturing in Glendale.

“I’m really glad I got this job,” Viray, 27, said. “If I didn’t, I don’t know what I’d do.”

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FYI

Forest Lawn of Hollywood Hills hosts a Veterans Day program at 11 a.m., 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, in which Glendale is participating. There will be an aerial performance by the Golden Stars Skydiving Team and more. Admission is free. Call (800) 204-3131.