We received this from SOTech and thought it would be good for our readers to see why they started the VIPER program.
The staff of SOTech want to take the opportunity of the coming of a New Year to mark the successful completion of a year’s work and hard fought establishment of its Veterans Industry Program for Employment Reintegration (VIPER) charity. The program started as a group of veterans in industry wanting to help out their less fortunate brethren. The Veterans Administration Hospital in West Los Angeles had over 1000 veterans with afflictions related to tours of duty from Vietnam to the current conflicts, stagnating in a domiciliary. In the name of SPC Clayton Taylor, a soldier who died by his own hand, Jim Cragg decided to start VIPER in order to provide support for returning vets and draw attention to their psychological needs.
Cragg is the CEO of SOTech / Special Operations Technologies Inc and was Taylor’s Officer in Charge prior to Taylor deploying to Afghanistan. About half of SOTech’s administrative staff are OEF and OIF Veterans. VIPER may have started as a good will effort, but it has grown into a program employing a significant number of patients, enabling them to move towards job proficiency and self reliance away from hospital grounds. These heroes work on SOTech projects manufacturing and assembling medical projects for units deploying into combat. These veteran warriors, many of whom felt a sense of abandonment after being injured and leaving government service, know that they are part of a team supporting our troops in the field and helping to bring them home alive. Expanding on the mission of service, VIPER vets are sewing recycled cloth shopping bags for local cities. They have also embarked on the Battle Bear program, assembling camouflage teddy bears that deployed soldiers can adorn with their patches and badges and send home bonding them with their families.
SOTech will be on booth #20113 for SHOT SHOW 2011
Tags: S.O.Tech