Two transitioning service members are finishing internships in the city of San Diego's Office of Emergency Services Department as part of a program the city is looking to expand.
DOD Skillbridge is a Defense Department program that connects service members to internships during the final six months of their military service contracts. They still receive their military pay and benefits but work entirely outside the service.
Army CW4 Jason Twedt spent more than 20 years in Army intelligence. Toward the end of his active duty career, he started thinking about the future and about home — San Diego.
He started looking at DOD Skillbridge.
"There's a tremendous amount of options," he said.
The program is new for the city. Last year, San Diego hired Jon Aasted — a chief in the Navy Reserve — as its first-ever Veteran Engagement Coordinator. Bringing DOD SkillBridge to the city was one of his first goals, he told KPBS in June 2024.
He said he hopes the experience with the first interns helps sell the program to other departments across the city.
"Thankfully, we have a lot of veterans in this department, so they recognize the value immediately," Aasted said. "They were doing very high level things."
When a jet crashed into a military housing neighborhood in May, it was the Office of Emergency Services that mobilized.
"We put them not just in different classes that my personnel were attending, but they also participated in everything we were doing," said Chris Heiser, the executive director of the Office of Emergency Services.
"It wasn't like 'stand back and watch,' it was 'this is important. Sit in that seat and start doing it.'"
Navy Chief Steffen Kingsley is also interning in the office.
"I just saw a lot of support and a lot of joint efforts between the city of San Diego and the Navy," Kingsley said. "It was definitively interesting to see ... learning the lingo and how to talk and all that to where I could actually communicate with other emergency managers throughout the city and county."
Twedt said he thinks they helped the community.
"It was intense," he said. "It was really unfortunate for what happened and where it happened. But ... we were able to come in and put our skills to work, and we did."
The city wasn't able to offer either man a permanent position. However, Aasted said the experience makes each more competitive in the job market.
Heiser — also an Army veteran — said he's looking forward to working with more transitioning service members in the future.
"This was an amazing experience for us," he said. "This is something we can provide to those that have protected us — and it's a win-win. Everybody walks away ahead."
Aasted said he's working with other city departments — Police and Transportation — to open other internships for DOD SkillBridge.
