Army Corps of Engineers hires disabled vets for historic artifacts project

From Georgia Public Broadcasting:

AUGUSTA, Ga. — In Augusta the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the first of three Veterans Curation Project laboratories Oct. 19.

According to officials, the goal of the project, which is being funded by $3.5 million in Recovery Act Funds, is to provide disabled veterans jobs restoring and preserving the sizable collection of historic artifacts held by the Corps of Engineers.

Veterans like Leonard Marshall (pictured) have already received specialized training in computer, scanning and photographic technologies at the Augusta facility. Officials say those skills could be useful in jobs outside of the labs and Marshall agrees.

"Not only do you learn data management you learn work skills. You learn how to interact with other people. There are so many different things you can learn here that you can apply anywhere."

The Corp is working with the Department of Veterans Affairs and various Wounded Warrior groups to fill jobs at the Augusta lab as well as labs in St. Louis, MO and Washington, D.C.

Those facilities should be operational by the end of the 2010 fiscal year.