You want to hire veterans near Twentynine Palms. Good call. This base sits in the high desert of Southern California. It is the largest Marine Corps base in the country. Every month, Marines and Sailors here hit the end of their service. Many of them stay local in the Morongo Basin. Some look across the Inland Empire for work. They are sharp, trained, and ready. Most employers never reach them in time.

This is a hiring guide for a real company. Not a Fortune 500 with a veteran program. A midsize business that needs good people fast. You do not have a recruiting team of twenty. You have a few openings and a tight budget. That is fine. You can still win this talent. You just need to know where they are and how to read them.

I am Brad Tachi. I founded Best Military Resume. Every month we see over 1,000 new profiles come through our platform. We have built more than 60,000 resumes. So I see what this talent pool looks like up close. Let me show you how to tap the one near Twentynine Palms.

Who Separates Near Twentynine Palms?

The base is officially the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. Locals just call it 29 Palms. It covers over 1,100 square miles of desert. The garrison unit is the 7th Marine Regiment. But the base is much more than infantry.

A few key units shape the local talent pool. The Marine Corps Communication-Electronics School is here. That means a steady flow of Marines trained in radios, networks, and electronics. Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms is here too. So you get Navy corpsmen, who are trained medics. There are artillery, tank, and logistics units. Plus the trainers who run the big desert war games.

So the pool is wider than you might think. Not every Marine is a rifleman. Read the work on the resume, not just the unit name.

Why Hire Veterans From This Base?

Veterans show up. They lead. They fix things without being told twice. That is not a slogan. It is what years of structure builds into a person. A Marine sergeant from 29 Palms has run teams in brutal heat. He has kept gear working when it really mattered. That habit follows them to your shop floor.

The numbers back this up too. Veterans tend to be steady workers. In 2025, the jobless rate for all veterans was 3.5 percent. For nonveterans it was 4.2 percent. You can see that data on the Bureau of Labor Statistics site. Lower joblessness points to people who get hired and stay hired.

For a midsize company, that matters even more. You cannot afford a bad hire. You do not have a deep bench. A veteran gives you someone who can step in and own a role. They are used to clear standards and real ownership. That is the kind of hire that pays you back.

There is one more edge near this base. It is location. These folks already live in the Morongo Basin or close by. Many bought homes. Their spouses work local. Their kids are in local schools. So they are not chasing a job in another state. They want a good role near home. If you are local, you can offer that. Big companies far away cannot.

How Do You Read a Marine's Resume?

This is where most employers trip. A veteran resume can look like code. Job titles read as numbers. Awards mean nothing to you. Units have names you do not know. So a strong candidate can look weak on paper. That is a mistake you can avoid.

Start by ignoring the military code and reading the work. A "0651" is a data network specialist. A "3531" is a motor vehicle operator. The number is noise. The job behind it is real. Look for verbs that show what they did. Led. Ran. Fixed. Trained. Tracked. Those tell you the truth.

The two boxes say the same thing. One is in their language. One is in yours. A good veteran resume already does this swap. But many do not. So you may need to read past the codes yourself. For a deeper screen, our guide on how to evaluate a veteran's resume walks through it step by step. We also have a piece on writing a job description that attracts veterans. It helps you get the right people to apply in the first place.

Will an ATS Hide Good Candidates From You?

Yes, it can. And this is worth understanding. Your applicant tracking system does not throw resumes away. It racks and stacks them by keyword match. So a Marine who writes "MTVR" and "PMCS" may sink to the bottom of the queue. Your system was looking for "fleet" and "preventive maintenance." Same skill. Different words.

The fix is simple. Search both languages. When you post a role, list the civilian terms and the common military ones. When you screen, read past the raw codes. A great mechanic should not get buried because he used Marine Corps words on his resume. Do not let your software hide your best hire.

How Do You Reach Them Before They Separate?

Timing is everything here. The best moment to reach a separating Marine is before the separation date. Not after. Once they leave, they scatter. Some move home out of state. Some take the first job they find. If you wait, you lose them. So you want to be in front of them while they are still on base and planning.

There are a few real channels for this. None of them cost much. They just take a little effort.

Each of these has a deeper guide. You can read how to recruit through base transition offices. You can learn to build a veteran talent pipeline before reqs open. And our veteran recruiting strategy playbook ties it all together.

What Is SkillBridge and Should You Use It?

SkillBridge is one of the best tools you have. It is a Department of Defense program. It lets a service member work at your company during their last few months of service. You can learn the basics on the DoD SkillBridge site.

Here is the part employers love. The military still pays the service member during SkillBridge. You do not pay their salary. You get months to see how they work. If it goes well, you make an offer when they separate. It works like a long, real interview.

Twentynine Palms sends Marines into SkillBridge like any major base. To host an intern, you become an approved provider. It is not hard for a midsize company. Our guide on how to become a SkillBridge host company shows the steps. You can also source veterans through the SkillBridge directory to find interns who fit your roles.

Are There Tax Breaks for Hiring Veterans?

There can be. The main one is the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, or WOTC. It is a federal credit for hiring people from certain groups, including some veterans. You can read about it on the Department of Labor employer page.

One important note. The WOTC expired at the end of 2025. It is not available for 2026 hires unless Congress renews it. Congress has renewed it after past lapses. Sometimes they go back in time and cover hires made during the gap. But you cannot count on it right now. So do not promise yourself a credit that may not be there. Check the current status before you plan around it.

Our full WOTC guide for employers goes deeper. The bigger point stands either way. The real value of a veteran hire is the person, not the tax form. A steady, capable worker beats a one-time credit every time.

How Big Is the Local Pool, Really?

Bigger than the base alone. Twentynine Palms itself has around 28,000 people. The wider Morongo Basin runs over 70,000, across Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, and nearby towns. Many are veterans who served and stayed. So your pool is not just this year's separating Marines. It is years of them who put down roots.

And the Inland Empire is right next door. That is one of the fastest-growing job markets in California. Veterans in the basin can reach jobs across the region. So if you sit in the broader Inland Empire, this base feeds you too. To size up your own area, read how many veterans are in your local talent pool.

You are also near other Southern California bases. If your search runs wider, look at recruiting near Camp Pendleton and the San Diego military bases. To the east, our Phoenix and Luke Air Force Base guide covers that metro.

What Does a Good First Interview Look Like?

Keep it simple and human. A Marine may not sell himself well at first. Military culture trains people to credit the team, not themselves. So you have to draw out what they actually did. Ask about a time they led. Ask what broke and how they fixed it. Ask what they owned.

Do not get hung up on gaps in civilian terms. A 24-year-old sergeant may have run a 10-person shop and managed a million dollars in gear. That is real management. It just did not come with a civilian title. Our guide on how to interview a veteran candidate gives you the right questions to ask.

Speed wins here. A separating Marine is talking to a few employers at once. If your process drags for weeks, the fast company gets them. As a midsize business, that is your edge. You can move quicker than the big players. Use it.

Where Do You Start?

Start with one channel and one role. Do not try to build a giant program. Pick a role you need to fill near Twentynine Palms. Then reach the talent before they separate. That might be the base transition office. It might be a SkillBridge intern. It might be a ready pool of veteran profiles.

Best Military Resume can connect you to that pool. We see over 1,000 new profiles every month. We have built more than 60,000 resumes. The pool runs deep in maintenance, logistics, communications, and frontline leadership. That is exactly the kind of talent that comes out of 29 Palms.

The talent near Twentynine Palms is some of the best in the country. They are trained, local, and ready to work. Most employers never reach them in time. You now know how. Move first, read the work behind the codes, and you will hire people who stay. To get started, visit our hire page or learn how to partner with us.