JEFFERSON COUNTY -- Sheriff Glenn Boyer is on a mission to hire as many military veterans as he can.
His newest recruit started just three weeks ago. Deputy Allen Rice was an army combat veteran.
"You're serving the people. Same thing applies here, it's just a different uniform," said Rice.
Boyer believes veterans "have the maturity the street sense and they had the willpower to do the job under any circumstances." He said he and other employers owe veterans and they contribute a life experience every employer could use.
"We can take a guy in the military and train them in two-thirds of the time it would take somebody else," said Boyer.
The sheriff's push to hire veterans is personal.
"When I came back from Vietnam, you didn't talk about Vietnam. You just went to work and shut up. I saw 55-gallon drums of uniforms where guys would change out of uniforms because they didn't want to get spit on walking into the public. That should never happen again. I lost friends in Vietnam. I went to Vietnam, I know what it was like. I got a little bit of experience," he said.
He knows veterans bring back their experiences but they also bring back post traumatic stress. He tells every military man and woman he hires the same thing.
"Have you signed up for the VA? Have you signed up for a veteran organization like VFW, Amvet," he said.
He's trying to make sure his veteran hires ask for help if they have PTSD symptoms.
"If you need a little help, there's no shame," he said.
Twenty-five percent of the sheriff's deputies are veterans.
