THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140336
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 76 lines
Steve Bannat, a retired naval officer who knows all about military funding cuts, wants to dispel rumors that a program designed to help sailors leave the Navy is not going away.
The Navy's Transition Assistance Program (TAP) began as a pilot project in Norfolk six years ago and soon became a model for other branches of service aiming to to help peopleretiring from or leaving the service.
Rumor has it that as military downsizing comes to an end, so will TAP. Sailors call the Norfolk Navy Family Services, where Bannat is the relocation and transition manager, daily, wanting to know whether they can still take classes to help them adjust to civilian life.
``This is part of the Navy's quality-of-life program,'' Bannat said. ``Drawdown or not, it's still needed for sailors' easy transition to civilian life.
``The program's validity has been established. We have good funding at least through the next fiscal year.''
That should be a relief to the men and women who will attend nearly 60 TAP classes at the Norfolk Naval Base complex this year.
Each class averages 300 participants. More than 30,000 sailors have been through the transition program in Norfolk since 1990. The numbers have steadily grown from that time, when TAP was little more than a three-day resume writing and job search workshop: Now it draws about 7,000 participants a year.
They attend five all-day workshops on everything from adjusting their appearance for the civilian working world to collecting veterans' benefits.
Master Chief Joe Johnson, an operations officer at the Dam Neck Fleet Combat Training Center, went to the classes a year before he was set to retire after 20 years' service.
That was three years ago, and Johnson is still in the Navy. He's been in for 22 years now, and he has no plans to retire.
``I was up for shore duty and an advancement, and I was working on a college degree,'' he said. ``My daughter was in college, and I was worried about having to find another job.''
After listening to experts discuss job searching, the local employment market and salaries, Johnson decided he wasn't ready to retire.
Bannat says that often happens: Sailors who had planned to retire, or to leave the Navy after one enlistment, change their minds when they've heard everything involved in making the move to civilian life.
``I got a lot of information condensed into a few days,'' Johnson said, ``and I got to talk to people who actually do hiring. I found out I'll probably have to take a pay cut when I retire, so I decided to stay in a little longer.
``At least now I have a job.''
Pay cut or no, Petty Officer 1st Class Cecil Nixon was ``really, really ready to retire'' last January. He wanted to be prepared for the outside world, so he attended the TAP series not once, but three times.
``I prepared all along, but the world is constantly changing and you have to change with it,'' Nixon said. ``We live with what I call `serial employment,' and the lack of security is very stressful.''
Job search practice Nixon conducted with prospective employers before he planned to retire led directly to his civilian job, recruiting physicians for the Navy.
During the five-day workshops participants learn about financial planning, job search skills, dressing for success, relocation problems, family medical coverage, dealing with job offers and using veterans' benefits.
The main questions everyone leaving the Navy asks, Bannat said, are: Where am I going to live? What benefits will be available when I get there? What am I going to do? What kind of salary can I expect?
TAP works, he said, because program leaders - all either former members of the military or spouses of military members - don't try to sway sailors to stay in or leave the service.
``We're not here to give advice,'' Bannat said. ``We're here to give information, options, resources and referrals.''
The recently retired Nixon suggests anyone thinking of leaving the Navy should take advantage of the program: ``Everyone who comes into the service has to go out eventually. No one stays forever.'' by CNB