Georgia GCSA moves to help Veterans enter the Industry

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Georgia GCSA Moves to Help Veterans Enter the Industry

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enuine partnerships benefit all parties involved and there is real optimism that will be the case for the Georgia GCSA and Operation Double Eagle in Augusta. Operation Double Eagle, a program of the Warrior Alliance, offers veterans an intensive nine-week training program geared towards careers in and around golf course maintenance.

“We want the golf industry to know that this program helps veterans, for sure,” says Warrior Alliance president and chief executive officer, Scott Johnson.

“But equally, we want the industry to see this as a resource pool to address the skilled labor shortage.”

Johnson met with Georgia GCSA leaders this spring to provide an overview of the program, which includes academic instruction at Augusta Technical College and real-world experience at the Double Eagle Performance Center and Augusta Municipal Golf Club, also known as The Patch.

Hoyt Ellspermann with Operation Double Eagle graduate Shannon Bowling, who is making a positive impression on staff at The Creek Club at Reynolds Lake Oconee.

“We were thoroughly impressed,” says Georgia GCSA president, Tim Busek, from St Ives Country Club. “This is an exciting opportunity to serve as something beneficial on the labor issue which all superintendents are dealing with at the moment. And, of course, do something positive for veterans at the same time.”

Johnson says it is not just golf course maintenance that can address labor issues through Operation Double Eagle. “There is also a real opportunity for suppliers and manufacturers to develop a relationship with us that could serve as a recruiting arm in their hiring process,” he says. “This whole golf community can bring in veterans on internships that are already paid for. They can take advantage of that. But we want to look at this program and its people in the long-term, providing a regular feed of skilled help.”

Johnson is careful to draw a distinction between Operation Double Eagle and some of the other veteran support organizations.

“There is a large population of veterans who have barriers to 34

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employment and those barriers are not necessarily what people think they are,” he says. “It’s not because they were wounded and are physically impaired or emotionally impaired that they can’t get jobs. That’s not what this is.

“This is about people who are underemployed and have been unable to find access into the right jobs or careers once they leave service.”

The years that many veterans spend serving their country can leave them out of the career stream that exists in civilian life. While their experience is valuable, it is often not seen as translatable as someone who spent the same number of years directly in that field.

“So, despite all the experience you have, all the success and outputs in a service environment, you have to start all over again because you’re competing with people who have years on you,” Johnson says. “Good luck trying to get a chance to even talk about what you did and can do.”

The Georgia GCSA wants to help bridge that hurdle by facilitating placement for program graduates in jobs at courses where those graduates live. “Even if we can achieve placement of a third of the program graduates, that’s going to make a real difference in lives and help golf course superintendents at the same time,” says Busek. Other Georgia GCSA leaders who met with Johnson were executive director, Tenia Workman, and directors, Tommy Hewitt, from Windermere Golf Club, and Brandon Hayes, from Reynolds Lake Oconee – Great Waters.

Operation Double Eagle aims to run four groups, or cohorts, of 15 to 20 veterans through the program each year. The program barely launched when it ran into the COVID-19 pandemic last year, shutting things down as it did for many, at least temporarily. The course provides free instruction towards a golf turf and landscape specialist certificate with courses in horticulture science, turf management, irrigation, pesticide use and golf course maintenance. Students also receive a stipend during the course.

Reynolds Lake Oconee has already engaged with Operation Double Eagle, employing Shannon Bowling, a 20-year military veteran, at The Creek Club. Bowling was top of his class at Operation Double Eagle and made a good impression since, according to Creek Club superintendent Hoyt Ellspermann, who is also a Georgia GCSA director. “We keep giving him more and more, and he does everything we ask of him, and he never complains,” Ellspermann told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution newspaper.

Johnson, spent most of his working life in high level information technology after working on a golf course crew in high school and college, says for many veterans, the golf industry offers a unique chance to flourish.

Johnson is not surprised.

“These are not general labor people. They are highly skilled, highly competent, overly productive, extremely resilient,” he says. “They are leaders, and they are mission and project focused and have an aptitude you can’t put into words. These are people who are more than capable of pursuing a career path at a supervisory level, where they can earn the kind of living wage where they can support a family.”

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“There’s a certain segment of the veteran population that doesn’t want to be in corporate life,” he says. “Golf course maintenance is an environment of being outside, being on a team, getting your boots on the ground, your hands in the dirt.

And that’s healing for many people.

“While The Warrior Alliance is a national organization, these are primarily Georgia veterans going through the program and the intent is to have them working in Georgia. We want to get big in our own backyard, support the state and allow veterans to work and raise families in the towns they want to live in.”

Any Georgia GCSA members wanting to learn more or lend support, can visit www.TheWarriorAlliance.org/OperationDouble-Eagle.

Rob Alford Owner

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Specializing in Storm Remediation Cell: (706) 840-5783 Phone: (706) 863-2114 Fax: (706) 863-1196 www.poteetlandscaping.com July-August 2021 • THROUGH THE GREEN

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