Book Description

"The purpose of this research is to discuss the problems with reintegration from active duty to civilian life. The hope is to also conduct a case study of veterans that are actively participating in a novel civilian-based sustainable and scalable solution to build a business skill that will help them in all walks of life. Scars and Stripes Coffee (SSC) is a company on a unique mission to empower veterans to start their own e-commerce business. The author is driven by the belief that this company’s purpose is much bigger than selling a bag of coffee. The companies purpose stems from my belief that veterans have substantial reintegration needs which our society is not meeting. Our young veterans are returning with images and voices that never leave their heads. This is caused by a unique combat zone experiences where the enemy is at times unknown. Like veterans from other wars, they return from war, but the war never leaves them. They find themselves to be strangers in their own country even in a room full of familiar faces. Based on the authors literature review, the common theme surrounding the veteran reintegration dilemma is emotional or physical trauma. In addition, a lack of formal education, sense of purpose and understanding their new mission in life leads to anger and confusion. The veteran reports of having difficulty applying their military skills to a civilian job or business culture. Reported levels of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are increasing. I feel that is being caused by the lack of understanding from the veteran on how to navigate in an individualistic society versus a military community-based environment. As a veteran only business model, SSC is employing a novel approach to develop a successful company. The mission is to continue to build a for-profit company that will be sustainable through the sale of coffee. The military structure is what makes the company scalable because each member can continue to increase in rank. SSC will be built through a known military rank structure starting with the basic Team member to Squad Leader to Platoon Sergeant then on to 1ST Sergeant. With this structure, the company will be able to build communities of veterans with a common mission, purpose, team and accountability. Eventually, there will be an SSC team to join in every town in America. SSC will reignite the camaraderie that makes the U.S. Military so successful and adapt that type of culture into a civilian based company. In turn, veteran “transition coaches” will be developed throughout the members joining the company to training and advance other veterans through the rank structure. This will create a team environment so that the joining veteran has a group of other veterans to help them navigate the reintegration process. In addition, an empirically designed study will be discussed to test the efficacy of this model."--Abstract.