Lloyd Hatfield has spent a lot of his life involved with the U.S. military.

Now, almost four years after retiring, he finds himself still active, but this time it is to help other veterans find jobs as Wichita State’s veterans employment recruiter.

Before he joined the Air Force, Hatfield graduated from Washburn University in 1989, and lived in Topeka until 1994 before moving to Wichita.

As a college student, Hatfield worked as a bartender and a busboy. Getting married early, he said it was tough trying to get himself through school and provide for him and his wife. He said there were times when he only had 50 bucks in his checking account.

After college, Hatfield spent 24 years in the U.S. Air Force. His father served in the U.S Navy for 20 years, but Hatfield had a passion for flying. He joked that his love for flying was a selfish reason to join, but he also wanted to serve his country. Hatfield started as an enlisted man looking to get a flying job and was eventually commissioned as an officer and started flying.

“There were all kinds of openings for air crew like myself, so I made the transfer down to Wichita for flying B1s full-time.”

He worked as the director of personnel, and in the last few years of his career, was an intelligence officer overseeing drone flights in the Middle East. Hatfield retired in 2012 and said that he had a great career and wanted to use that experience to recruit veterans to WSU.

After his service, he said he was mentally exhausted and took six months to relax. He had some immediate job offers as a contractor for the government, but turned them down and instead started volunteering for the American Red Cross.

Hatfield finally found a job he really wanted, and he has been using his veteran’s experience to help increase employment of veterans at WSU since February 2014.

As the veteran’s employment recruiter, Hatfield networks with other military entities to recruit either current military or veterans to come work at WSU.

“There’s a lot of skills that are very easy to translate to any job, and my job is to break those barriers from the military to working at WSU. You can’t really go from being a tank driver to working here because there’s no tanks out here to drive,” Hatfield said with a laugh.

In a hypothetical example, if there is a veteran who is a tank driver, Hatfield would work with them to find their strengths. If they led a squadron of 12 people, they have leadership skills and experience managing a program.

Besides trying to get veterans interested in working at WSU, he also works to get university interested in hiring veterans. Hatfield said search committees typically don’t consider the field of retired veterans when seeking employees.

He works with Veteran’s Preference, which is not a guaranteed hire for a veteran, but if a veteran meets all the requirements, they are guaranteed a face-to-face interview.

“Veteran’s Preference really opens some eyes … and it helps with the process,” Hatfield said.

When he was applying for jobs, he saw the frustration he had and wants to help other veterans with that feeling. He feels like the military has had a greater impact on him than a person who goes for four or five years just to get an education for free.

The effect from the military has been life-changing, he said. He said he feels like the military made him less cocky, and made him realize it’s not all about him, while expanding his outlook.

The Air Force has also given him a lot of opportunities to travel different places. He has visited Spain, Denmark, England, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Australia and has flown over the North Pole.

“The military gives people a chance to learn new cultures and see places that normal Americans don’t get to see,” he said.