Life is a journey for Austin’s Norman Hecimovich.

The path he has chosen is filled with two things: education and public service.

He is a retired educator of more than three decades of service to public school education.

He is also a retired military officer with 42 1/2 years of service to America.

For the last 15 years, Hecimovich has served American veterans as chairman of Region VI of the Minnesota Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.

In all three endeavors — educator, soldier and soldier’s advocate— Hecimovich was dealt with “misunderstandings” and today he helps resolve them for the nation’s citizen soldiers.

Hecimovich, who is also an Austin City Council member, recently returned from a week’s training from the ESGR in Philadelphia.

Hecimovich said the training made him smarter about how the ESGR can help America’s veterans.

“The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is a Department of Defense organization, which provides information, education and, when necessary, informal mediation for employers of Guard and Reserve soldiers.

“In this way, ESGR supports America’s employers who share their employees with the nation to ensure the viability of the all-volunteer force and, thus, our national security,” he said.

Hecimovich serves a region encompassing the 1st Congressional District.

The ESGR convention took Hecimovich to Philadelphia specifically for leadership training. “There were ESGR officers there from every state,” he said. “It updated us on what was new and some things we will need to look for in the future.”

There are ESGRs in every state and the U.S. territories.

The next ESGR training for Hecimovich will be on the role of an ombudsman on the role of mediating disputes between soldiers and their employers.

“ There are 22 ombudsmen in Minnesota; 18 are lawyers or judges,” he said. “There are only a few of us who are trained who are not lawyers or judges.”

He was the only ESGR representative at the national conference from Minnesota.

The DOD provided the training.

“It was excellent training,” he said. “It gave us a chance to go over the rules and regulations, what we should be doing and what we should be looking for as well as ways we can improve what we are doing.”

“Also, they told us about recruiting more volunteers to become ESGR officers,” he said.

In Region VI, there are 18 National Guard and Army Reserve units and only 13 ESGR volunteers.

“Statewide we have a shortage and we have so many soldiers we would like to have more assigned to take care of the units, so that every Guard and Reserve unit has someone assigned to them in the event they have a problem of any kind or want to know the Uniform Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act of 1994-96,” he said.

ESGR volunteers could be anybody, according to Hecimovich, but most of them have a military background even though it is not a pre-requisite.

“There are so many things they can do,” he said, pointing out soldiers have responsibilities as well as rights under the law.

Every attempt will be made to assign a new ESGR officer to a unit in or near where they live.

There is no pay, but the volunteers are reimbursed for mileage they incur in serving soldiers and their employers.

Basically, the ESGR volunteers enforce the USERA Act.

“Many times, it’s only a misunderstanding between the employer and the soldier,” he said.

Hecimovich things the ESGR program is “working.”

“We are always looking for ways to make it better, because compared to when I started in 1993, there hadn’t been that many activations, but today there are.”

The DOD’s program has a recognition program for employers who adhere to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

Back home, Hecimovich has presented certificates of appreciation to the Austin Area Chamber of Commerce, City of Austin, Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority, Austin Utilities, Ellis Middle School, Austin Daily Herald and local veterans organizations.

USERA simply doesn’t exist to guarantee a volunteer citizen-soldier employment: The soldier must comply with regulations to receive that protection.

“We want the employer to feel comfortable and the employee, too, but it can’t be a one-way street. They both have responsibilities,” Hecimovich said.

When soldiers lose the “battle” with an employer and their job, it’s because “they have not followed the procedure.

“A few times we have had problems that we haven’t been able to work out,” he said.

USERA is working, according to the ESGR officer.

“I’ve had excellent cooperation from employers,” he said. “In the last 15 years, I’ve had 20 cases and I have been able to resolve all of them, because it was just a misunderstanding.”

For more information about becoming an ESGR volunteer, call Hecimovich at 437-4245 or 438-9647 or go online www.esgr.mil.

Interested parties may also e-mail Hecimovich at nehecimovich@smig.net.