Veteran launches business of his own By Jim Martin

Tim Foor has been a lot of things in his 57 years.

He's been a husband and a father, a college graduate and a professional, and military officer who served two tours of duty.

What Foor, a retired lieutenant colonel, never expected to be was unemployed. And he certainly didn't expect to open a new business last year, three years after leaving the military with a service-related disability.

When the Pittsburgh-area native retired, he expected to slip into civilian life and a job that drew on his skills as a military officer who had managed hundreds of soldiers. But those jobs never materialized.

Foor said he submitted hundreds of job

See veteran, T6

applications, but not one of them produced a solid job offer. Foor was disappointed, but said he understood.

"Being in personnel management a number of years ago in a civilian enterprise, I couldn't help but look at resumes and think about how old they are," he said. "I think a lot of people are looking for people who fit within their organization."

He's also convinced that others wrote him off as overqualified.

"I would probably have taken a half a dozen jobs that I was offered just to have employment," he said.

It wasn't his disability that held him back, he said.

"My disabilities are a little bit here and a little bit there, a bad shoulder, a back problem, some hearing loss, a lot of little things adding up," he said. "But most of my disabilities are not severe. I can do pretty much what I want."

Slowly, Foor decided he might want to revisit the idea of owning his own business.

An avid hunter and sportsman his entire life, Foor enrolled in a vocational program in gunsmithing, funded by the Veterans Affairs Administration. The VA Accelerator Program helped him learn other skills that were just as important, including how to develop a business plan and to learn about business taxes and banking.

In October, he opened Foor Gunsmithing in Millcreek Township. Foor doesn't operate a retail location, but gets most of his business from advertisements and referrals from gun dealers.

Success hasn't come overnight, but business is building to the point that Foor sometimes finds himself working long hours.

"It's a new business," he said. "It takes a while to build a reputation and get known."

And while owning a small business might not compare to the challenges of combat, "It's not for the faint of heart," he said. "You have to put everything into it."

Foor had imagined he might be working in management at this stage of his career. But he's anything but disappointed as he works at home, where he shares space and conversation with his wife, who works on craft projects while he works on guns.

Foor had read stories and heard accounts of companies that were eager to hire veterans, but said he feels no disappointment that it didn't happen for him.

No one owed him anything, he said.

"I am one who believes there is a path and a direction for everyone out there," he said. "You have to be patient to see where that takes you. I am very happy with where that has taken me."

Foor Gunsmithing can be reached at 814-722-2248 or visited online at www.foorgunsmithin.com.

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Send email to jim.martin@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNMartin.

Continued from T1