Workers at the Savannah River Site are continuing efforts to offer veterans a normal work life in America once they return home after years of service overseas.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the site's management and operations contractor, is joining with the site's Archaeological Research Program and subcontractor New South Associates in the most recent effort to help veterans, according to a press release.
The there organizations invited a group of veterans to visit the Site's curation facility as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Veterans Curation Program, or VCP.
The program provides veterans with tangible work skills and experience through the rehabilitation and preservation of federally-owned archaeological collections.
The curation facility was a warehouse but now preserves and protects historic artifacts. Though not a museum, the curation facility is home for artifacts from research program and the Cold War Preservation Program.
Items stored in the facility range from approximately 1950 to 1989 and relate to the key themes of the collection: historical figures, historic events, the history of technology on and off site, and the social history of the men and women who worked at the Savannah River Plant.
Artifacts range from small campaign buttons worn by engineers who transferred from the Manhattan Project, to large control room panels used to operate a test reactor.
Under the program, veterans are employed for up to five months, and the products developed in the curation process translate to entry-level skill sets for the fields of forensics, administrative duties, and museum and records management.
Caroline Bradford, the laboratory manager for New South Associates, said that the program is mutually beneficial.
"Our employees are essentially doing the same type of work within our Veterans Curation Program," Bradford wrote. "Working with SRS, all of this helps our veterans to see where they fit within the field of archaeologists and collection managers. The curation facility is a great local resource."
Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the paper since June 2013. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Follow him on Twitter @DerrekAsberry.