It is the time of year to reflect on the many sacrifices of our service men and women who work to ensure our personal freedoms here in America. Far too often these veterans fall through the cracks upon returning home. The oil and natural gas industry is working with veterans’ organizations to ensure these individuals–our national heroes–can find jobs and necessary services after their tours of duty.

This weekend many of us took time to honor those who have served our country in the armed forces.  Veterans Day allows us a chance to reflect on the reason we have and continue to have the freedoms that we do.  Cabot Oil and Gas helped pay tribute to Veterans by holding the “Salute to Veterans” event at the Gino J. Merli Veterans Center in downtown Scranton.  Those present included state Sen. John Blake,  George Stark of Cabot Oil & Gas and Brig. Gen. Michael G. Gould, deputy adjutant general of the state Department of Veterans Affairs.

Commandant Michael Semian of the Gino Merli Veterans Center discussed with us how the event was organized as a collaborative effort to benefit local veterans.

Employing Our Veterans

The theme of the day was to help veterans become educated on the resources available to them to find employment when returning from service. The recent boom thanks to Marcellus Shale has created many such opportunities within the natural gas industry.

The work, the experience, the values that Veterans have we need those in the industry.  Cabot cant hire enough folks with a Veterans work ethic, work outside, work different shifts a hard work ethic. – George Stark Cabot Oil & Gas

The oil and gas industry is one industry that is always looking for hardworking men and women to work.  From rig jobs to desk jobs there are many different opportunities for our Veterans to find work.  Finding a purpose and assimilating back into everyday life is a burden within itself, and is often the most difficult challenge faced when returning home. Low unemployment rates in counties with natural gas development give hope to returning Veterans that they will be able to find a job and continue to be successful.

The experience that Veterans bring to our industry is second to none.  We want to make sure that as you are securing our future and protecting us we want to ensure that we are doing all that we can from the energy security standpoint; that energy security is being brought forth here in Pennsylvania and our goal is to make certain that we put you folks back to work. – George Stark Cabot Oil & Gas

Importance of Jobs

Brig. Gen. Michael G. Gould, deputy adjutant general of the state Department of Veterans Affairs spoke about how important it is for Veterans to find work:

Finding work for Veterans is an umbrella over all the other issues.  If a Veteran can find work and feel like a man or a women again, feel like they are contributing and taking care of their family again, a lot of mental health issues will go away, a lot of homeless issues will go away and we will start to see a very positive outcome. – Brig. Gen. Michael G. Gould

There is no doubt that natural gas development and infrastructure will create jobs and the fact that the industry looks to Veterans who are a demographic in need of work to fill these positions is a match made in heaven for the area.  As the area continues to benefit from job creation the state Department of Veterans is also in need of monetary aid to continue to provide services for the Veterans.

George Stark Handing Over a Check for $5000 on Behalf of Cabot

Cabot Oil and Gas understands the need to continue to provide for Veterans not only in jobs but also in services to assimilate them back into life post military service.  With that in mind George Stark presented Brig. Gen. Michael G. Gould with a check for the amount of $5,000 which would go towards the Veterans Trust Fund that Gould oversees.

Thank you to all of our local veterans for your service to our country, and thank you to companies like Cabot Oil and Gas for recognizing the importance of these sacrifices and helping create a promising future for returning service men and women.