Lieutenant prepares Marines for return
to civilian life.
LEWISTON -When Maine’s Marines return home, they’ll all speak to one guy: 2nd Lt. Shaun Bennett.
The 29-year-old graduate of Lewiston High School has been designated as the state’s Hometown Link, part of a service-wide program aimed at helping Marines enter civilian life when their duty ends.
As men and women return from Marine service in Iraq, it’ll include them, too.
“We’ll have 100 people coming home all at once,” said Bennett, who works from an office in Topsham. He won’t be alone, though.
Bennett is part of a two-year-old program known as Marine for Life. The service has assigned people like Bennett in every state and major city to help Marines.
In most cases, the work is with men and women who have served in active duty for years, often without ever having worked a civilian job.
“Many people already have a plan,” Bennett said. But for those who do not have one or merely need a hand, he’s there.
He helps people write resumes and prepare for job interviews, skills that are part of a week-long course that all service people must take before they leave active duty.
Meanwhile, Bennett meets business people across the state, trying to make connections for Marines looking for jobs. He participates in job fairs. And when people move here, he helps them talk with utility companies to set up their homes.
“If somebody is getting out in California, but they are moving to Maine, I can help them.”
Bennett helps five or six Marines a week, he said.
That will likely change when a group of local Marine reservists, currently overseas, finish their duty.
In January, the group, including Lewiston Police Officer Ryan Guay, was activated for a year. Some of those men are in Okinawa. Others are in Mongolia, helping troops in the former Soviet Republic train for work in Iraq.
If their schedules stay unchanged, they would return home in January.
“A lot of them aren’t going to need us as much,” said Bennett. Many will return to the jobs they left, which is their right.
All will be offered help, though, he said.
dhartill@sunjournal.com
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