After Hire Heroes USA founder John Bardis met veteran Justin Callahan-who lost a leg when he served in Afghanistan-playing basketball, he got the idea to start Hire Heroes USA. Callahan now is director of veteran relations for Hire Heroes USA.

Hire Heroes USA's mission is to provide career placement assistance to returning service men and women, and the program specializes in the placement of those injured or with any level of disability. Created in 2007, the program works with hundreds of veterans and pairs about eight to 10 veterans each month with jobs. The group serves veterans from all branches of the military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, Reservists and Coast Guard.

Hundreds of different, diverse companies help recruit veterans through Hire Heroes, which is based in Alpharetta, Georgia. Recruiting companies include Waste Management, Cardinal Health, Med Assets, Sanofi and Aventis.

"The big problem that veterans have is that most haven't written a resume or had an interview," said Brian Stann, executive director of Hire Heroes. "They don't know how to communicate their experience." Stann is a graduate of the Naval Academy, became spokesperson for Hire Heroes in 2008 and became executive director in January 2009.

Also, the transition back into civilian life can be challenging for service men and women, especially those wounded or disabled. As they seek to establish new civilian careers, many young veterans find themselves behind other job applicants in terms of employment experience and networking in the civilian sector. Hire Heroes helps to ease the veterans' transition into civilian life.

Hire Heroes helps veterans by teaching them how to write resumes, prepare for job interviews, network and hunt for jobs.

Christopher Pomeleo got his job as a client services specialist with Atlanta-based WebOps through Hire Heroes. WebOps is a medical logistics software company that provides real-time, web-based connectivity and coordination for logistics, sales support and operations via BlackBerrys, Palms or PCs.

"Hire Heroes is a very behind-the-scenes company that essentially spoke to me via e-mail at first," Pomeleo said. "I found them off of a veterans' job site and sent them my resume. They asked for my permission to 'tweak' my resume, which I knew needed some professional help. I was happy to have someone actually taking the time to make sure that the i's were dotted and the t's crossed."

The behind-the-scenes process took a few months, and then this past January Pomeleo got a telephone call from Justin Callahan from Hire Heroes informing him that they had found a very interesting opportunity and would like to forward his resume to the vice president of WebOps.

"I have been with WebOps for about three weeks now, and it's great," Pomeleo said. "It's very challenging, but I am so grateful that someone took a chance on me, with no college background, but instead, with the respect and understanding that my military background was going to be of even more use to them. They specifically wanted the discipline an NCO (Sergeant) in the military is capable of showing."

Job types offered through Hire Heroes vary. "A lot of guys looking into security and a lot want to get into a new phase," Stann said. Some favor jobs in IT, health care and public service.

Hire Heroes matches the skills and interests of returning veterans with the needs of participating hiring companies nationwide.

When veterans communicate with Hire Heroes through their website or an office, Hire Heroes does an intake, and then helps the veterans to create and spruce up their resumes. It usually takes two or three weeks to get veterans signed up and ready to use their resumes to apply for jobs, Stann said.

Stann estimated that Hire Heroes hears from and helps about 120 new veterans a month. Sometimes non-veterans apply initially to get help, but Hire Heroes staffers and volunteers verify that applicants have their DD214 papers, which is final paperwork that verifies veterans' service work. Six full-time staffers and 25 volunteers work for Hire Heroes, and they are in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, St. Louis, Atlanta and Florida.

Sometimes Hire Heroes sends veterans to weeklong retreats in Boswell, Pennsylvania, and St. Louis where they'll get schooled on resume writing, making goals and the like. It costs about $1,200 to $1,300 to send a veteran to such retreats, and the group sends about five or six veterans to retreats about every other month.

The program helps veterans nationwide. Asked whether certain geographic areas are the most popular with veterans, Stann said, "A lot of times, most of the people we work with want to go back to their hometown, which is pretty common with everybody and not just veterans."

Some of the veterans may come from small areas, and they want to work a specific job, but the area might not offer that type of job.

Veterans discuss with Hire Heroes whether they are willing to relocate and, if so, where. Hire Heroes also helps out with relocation costs, Stann said.

According to the Hire Heroes website, the unemployment rate among the nation's 2.5 million service-disabled men and women is 15.8 percent, or three times that of the general population.

As for what's unique about the volunteers who work for Hire Heroes who try to get veterans hooked up with jobs, Stann said, "What's unique is that they're selfless" and totally donate their time, even though everyone is busy. "They help because they truly appreciate the service of these young men and women," he said.

Craig Leener, president of Burbank, California-based My Eye Media_, has been recruiting veterans through Hire Heroes for jobs since July 2008. Michael Kadenacy, My Eye Media's founder and chief executive officer, is also a veteran of the U.S. Marines.

My Eye Media is a technical and postproduction services company that offers solutions and consultancy to major Hollywood motion picture studios and independent content producers. The company has hired one person through Hire Heroes.

As for how hiring a veteran through Hire Heroes has been working out, Leener said, "Our work is highly specialized, so that has limited the number of qualified candidates Hire Heroes USA has been able to send us. That said, the organization seems truly committed to finding the right match. And they're not just going through the motions - they're genuinely interested in both the process and the outcome."

Asked if he thinks there any qualities that veterans tend to have that make them good job candidates with his company, Leener said, "We're always looking to recruit responsible individuals who can deal effectively with the pressure of deadlines and understand the concept of working as a team. When you think about it, that's really the definition of a combat veteran."

For more information about Hire Heroes USA, go to www.hireheroesusa.org/about/overview.