Positivity: Veterans Day 2007 Marks One-Year Anniversary of Innovative Little Caesars(R) Veterans Program
Three years ago today, the Robbie Doughty story (second story excerpted below) appeared in USA Today. That story led to an amazing program.
DETROIT, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire/ — Veterans Day marks the one-year anniversary of the Little Caesars Veterans Program, which has enabled nearly two dozen veterans to transition to new careers as Little Caesars franchisees in the past 12 months. “It has been a terrific year for Little Caesars in several areas and one of our very exciting achievements has been the success of the Little Caesars Veterans Program,” said David Scrivano, president, Little Caesar Enterprises, Inc.
The Little Caesars Veterans Program provides business opportunities to veterans as they transition to civilian life or seek a career change. It offers honorably discharged service-disabled veterans who qualify as Little Caesars franchisees a benefit of up to $68,000. Honorably discharged non- service-disabled veterans who qualify as Little Caesars franchisees are eligible for a benefit of $10,000. Currently, more than 1,350 inquires have been made about the program.
“Little Caesars feels that it’s important to recognize the contributions veterans and their families make to our country, and thank them for their service,” said Scrivano. “Veterans can bring many capabilities to our business, and we feel that their skills are a good fit for our operating model.”
Inspiration Creates a Unique Program
Little Caesars founder and Marine, Michael Ilitch, read about Army Staff Sergeant Robbie Doughty, who lost his legs while serving in Iraq, and was impressed with his attitude and strength of character. After getting to know Doughty, Ilitch felt that he could be an entrepreneur. Wanting to show his appreciation, Ilitch gave Doughty a Little Caesars store, which he runs in his home town of Paducah, KY with his business partner and veteran Lloyd Allard. Ilitch was inspired by Doughty’s story to do more, and asked the Little Caesars management team to develop a program that would provide business opportunities to more veterans. The result is the Little Caesars Veterans Program.
….. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recognized Ilitch for the dedication and great patriotism he demonstrated through the Little Caesars Veterans Program. On September 17, 2007, the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, presented Ilitch with the Secretary’s Award, the highest tribute given to a private citizen by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, in Washington, DC.
“In addition to providing business opportunities for veterans, Mr. Ilitch also wants the Little Caesars Veterans Program to demonstrate to other business leaders that they, too, can create programs within their organizations to make a difference for veterans,” said Scrivano.
For example, the Little Caesars Veterans Program has inspired Virginia- based Zero’s Subs to create a similar program to help veterans become business owners. …..
Go here for the rest of the EarthTimes story.
Here is the original USA Today story — From Washington’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center (HT Control Congress):
Soldier finds new meaning in Thanksgiving
Posted 11/23/2004 8:11 PM; Updated 11/23/2004 8:38 PMWASHINGTON — Army Staff Sgt. Robbie Doughty has no complaints. Not about missing Thanksgivings with his family for most of the last decade. Not about spending half a year in the hospital.
And not about losing his legs after an ambush in July in Iraq.
“I’m just thankful for my family, my friends, and that my recovery has gone so well,” says Doughty, 29, of Paducah, Ky. “When I think about Thanksgiving this year, I’m just so grateful that I’ve received such excellent care from so many people. Everybody’s so well taken care of here.”
Here is the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Doughty sits in a model apartment in the hospital’s occupational therapy ward and reflects on what Thanksgiving means to him. Patients, many who lost arms and legs, use the rooms to learn again how to open a door, take a shower or pop a pizza in the microwave.
“It used to be that I’d numb myself to Thanksgiving and holidays,” Doughty says. “You got so used to missing them. It’s different now because of the injury. Everything’s different.”
It’s different as well for many of the 9,326 U.S. troops that the Defense Department says have been wounded since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. At Walter Reed, more than 3,600 soldiers have been treated — 881 with battle-related wounds. The facility is currently caring for 47 hospitalized soldiers, plus 200 others as outpatients.
Since Doughty was in junior high school, he remembers wanting to be in the Army, in part to satisfy a taste for adventure.
He found it.
Doughty joined the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum in New York, served on a peacekeeping mission in Haiti in 1994 and became an Army recruiter. One of the young soldiers he brought in was his brother John, now a military policeman.
“Then Sept. 11, 2001, happened, and I kind of felt on the sidelines” as a recruiter, he says. “I was ready to get back into it.”
As a member of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, Doughty arrived in Iraq in May. He was based in the Sunni Triangle, the hotbed of the insurgency.
His unit’s top goal was training the Iraqi national guard. But as an intelligence specialist he also helped track bombmakers and terrorists. They caught some, and Doughty felt his unit was making a difference.
“The vast majority of Iraqis we met want to get on with everyday life, get jobs and an income,” he says. “Just a small percentage are terrorists. It was kind of slow going at first. It takes time to build up reliable contacts.”
Victim of an ambush
On July 8, Doughty rode in the passenger seat of the lead Humvee in a three-vehicle convoy. The vehicles had no armor or doors so soldiers could quickly get out during a mission. The troops left early, hoping to beat the 120-degree midday heat and deliver laptop computers and a vehicle about 50 miles south of Samarra.
“We were on the Samarra bypass when we were ambushed,” he says. “A 155mm-mortar round hit us, just behind where I was sitting. I knew my legs were hurt bad, but I avoided looking at them.”
Doughty remained conscious. He recalls medics applying tourniquets to his legs, dressing gaping wounds, injecting him with morphine and intravenous fluids.
“Special forces medics are like doctors on a battlefield,” he says. “I had every confidence in them to fix me up.”
A helicopter whisked him to a combat surgical hospital in Balad, Iraq. Hours later the phone rang at his parents home in Calvert City, Ky.
A captain told his mother, Diane Doughty, that Robbie had been badly hurt. A half-hour later the captain called back and asked if he could come to their house.
“That sent up a red flag,” she says. “When he showed up with another man who turned out to be a chaplain, I thought we’d lost him. We found out God had spared Robbie’s life, but he had lost both his legs.”
Lt. Col. Tim Williams, Doughty’s commander, visited Doughty at the hospital in Balad, three hours after his legs had been amputated — his right leg above the knee, and his left just below.
“He’s coming around for the first time, and his demeanor was still so positive after such a catastrophic injury,” Williams says. “We’re all so proud of him. He’s the kind of guy we want serving our country. He has the kind of attitude I only wish more people could have.” …..
Go here for the rest of this story.
