Power Company Does 'Whatever It Takes' For Military Employees

By Sara Moore
American Forces Press Service

Sept. 5, 2008 - Dominion Resources has a simple philosophy when it comes to supporting its employees who serve part-time in the military: "Whatever it takes, for as long as it takes." That philosophy has led to a companywide culture of support for the military and also earned Dominion the 2008 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award. Dominion, with headquarters in Richmond, Va., is one of 15 companies receiving the award, which recognizes employers who provide exceptional support to employees serving in the National Guard or Reserve.

Dominion has many programs to support its employees who are activated or deployed with the National Guard or Reserve, said Jim Eck, vice president of human resources. During an activation or deployment, Dominion provides a pay supplement and continues benefits for the employee for up to 60 months. In addition, the company has a designated "care package coordinator" who keeps in touch with the deployed employees and organizes care-package drives for the troops overseas, he said. All the updates from deployed employees are posted to an electronic employee forum that can be accessed companywide.

Dominion takes care of the families of deployed employees, keeping in touch with them and inviting them to company functions, Eck said. The company also sponsors send-off and welcome-home celebrations for deploying troops.

"These employees have served the company, and they are now asked to serve our country," he said. "Dominion feels a partnership in serving the country, and this is the way that we can demonstrate our support for our country and these employees and their families."

Dominion's support for him and his family during a mobilization was what motivated Navy Cmdr. Michael Monfalcone to nominate the company for the Freedom Award. Monfalcone, executive officer of the U.S. Strategic Command Cruise Missile Support Activity, Atlantic Reserve Unit, in Norfolk, Va., was mobilized from October 2001 to August 2003 in support of Operation Noble Eagle. During that time, Dominion fully supported him and his family, he said, as the company does for all employees who serve in the military.

"Throughout the company, whenever a Guard or Reserve employee received orders to mobilize, their entire business location did everything possible to support that person and their family during the deployment," Monfalcone, who now is deployed to Iraq, said. He added that he has seen this support in action because he works in Dominion's human resources department, supporting labor relations initiatives.

Dominion has been recognized nationally for its support of military employees, Monfalcone noted. He has worked for Dominion for seven years, and said he plans to stay with the company when he returns from his current deployment. He noted that his 19 years of experience in the Navy have helped him develop critical leadership, team-building, communication, and problem-solving skills.

"My Navy experience has prepared me to be proactive, flexible, and adaptable and to continually seek opportunities to improve myself and my business environment," he said.

Qualities like those are what make employees with military training and experience so valuable to Dominion, Eck said. The company actively recruits military veterans and reserve personnel, he said.

"What we find is that these candidates are focused, and are well organized to plan and deliver results," he said. "So when we look at candidates that have demonstrated an aptitude for execution, men and women from the military rank very high based on what they have already trained to do and what they have already accomplished."

Eck said that he and the rest of the leadership of Dominion are honored to be receiving the Freedom Award. The company plans to continue its support of military employees, he said, and will expand its long-term disability coverage to provide differential coverage for long-term disability in the event that an employee is disabled while on active duty.

"We cannot just rest on our laurels. We can continue to improve our service and support for our employees that serve in the Guard and reserve," he said.

Dominion will receive the Freedom Award Sept. 18 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here. The Freedom Award was instituted in 1996 under the auspices of the National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve to recognize exceptional support from the employer community.

IndyCar Zooms National Guard Into New Racing Dimension

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
Special to American Forces Press Service

July 2, 2008 - A new relationship with IndyCar promises to propel National Guard recruiting forward and give citizen-soldiers and –airmen a more personal interest in another sport. The new 230-mph, No. 4 National Guard IndyCar was unveiled at the Army National Guard Readiness Center at Arlington Hall here last week.

"We've been involved with NASCAR for a number of years," said Maj. Gen. Ray Carpenter, special assistant to the director of the Army National Guard. "This is the next step in racing for us. It's a great, great opportunity for us to showcase our National Guard capability in a different forum. It's a great, great step forward.

"The benefit for us is that it provides another venue for us to tell the National Guard story and reach out to a target population."

Driven by Vitor Meira for Panther Racing team owner John Barnes, the Dallara IR car has a 3.5-liter Honda Indy V-8 engine and runs on ethanol.

Meira said a visit to wounded Guard members at Brooke Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, was the moment he truly understood what the National Guard stands for.

"I'm gaining so much from every soldier I meet," he said. "It's something very different than other sponsors. We pass the message on -- a message of honor, a message to be proud and stand for the great things this country stands for. I'm really honored to drive the National Guard car. The soldiers influence me. If I drove as good as they perform their duty every day, I would be in the winner's circle every time."

Meira sees common ground between the training he must do and the training soldiers do. "Training is everything in life," he said. "Soldiers and the Guard are a statement of that. The amount that they train and how well they perform their duty is a statement that training is everything."

Adrenaline and the spirit of competition are among Meira's driving forces. "It's my way of life," he said. "It's not work. It's something I was doing as a kid – something I would pay to do and now get paid to do."

The National Guard was the car's primary sponsor at Richmond International Raceway on June 28 and is also scheduled to be on July 6 at Watkins Glen International in New York, on Aug. 9 at the Kentucky Speedway and on Sept. 7 at the Chicagoland Speedway.

Panther Racing hosts up to 200 Guard members at each race. Owner John Barnes is in his 42nd year of racing, and he said he's come full circle: The racing driver who was his father's best friend and best man and who inspired Barnes to enter the world of the track himself was a National Guardsman.

"Now to have the National Guard support my team is unbelievable," he said, "something I never dreamed of."

Sometimes race car drivers are called heroes, Barnes said.

"The true heroes work in this building, and they work at the Guard units across the country, whether it's taking care of floods or tornadoes or whatever," Barnes said. "Every day, 17 governors call the Guard to activate them for something or other, and to know that we have that support as American citizens is just incredible. It's the framework of our country, and it's an honor to be a part of that."

Barnes's car has 18 races scheduled in the 2008 IndyCar series, including appearances in Australia, Canada and Japan.

"Initiatives like this have contributed to the Army National Guard going from 330,000 end strength in June of 2005 to 358,000-plus today," Carpenter said. "There's not been any single silver bullet here. It's taken a collection of NASCAR racing, of what we're doing here with Indy racing and all of the rest of the things we've got out there -- the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program [and] Active First -- have all come together and made this happen."

(Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill serves with the National Guard Bureau.)