If your company sits in or near Lawton, you have a hiring edge most employers never use. Fort Sill is right next door. Every year, thousands of soldiers come through that post. Many of them leave the Army and want to stay local. They have families here. Their kids are in Lawton schools. They do not want to move.

That means a steady stream of trained, drug-tested, security-cleared talent sits a few miles from your front door. You do not need a big-company hiring program to reach them. You need to know what they trained on and how to read their resumes.

I am a Navy veteran and the founder of Best Military Resume. I have spent years on both sides of the hiring desk. This guide shows you how to recruit veterans near Fort Sill. You will learn what skills they bring. You will see how a midsize employer can move faster than the big names.

Why Is Fort Sill a Strong Source of Local Talent?

Fort Sill is the Army's Fires Center of Excellence. It sits just north of Lawton, in Comanche County. The post and the city are tied together. When soldiers there leave the service, a lot of them stay in the area.

Fort Sill does two big jobs. First, it runs Basic Combat Training. Many new soldiers in the Army start here. Second, it is the home of two Army schools. The Field Artillery School and the Air Defense Artillery School both train here. Electronic warfare training happens here too.

This matters for you. The post is not just a base. It is a school. That means a high number of the people stationed there are instructors, trainers, and technical experts. They teach. They lead. They run programs. Those are the people you want.

What Skills Do Fort Sill Veterans Bring?

The job titles on a Fort Sill veteran's resume will look military. Do not let that throw you. Read the work, not the unit name. Here is what the training at Fort Sill builds.

Field artillery and air defense work is technical. Soldiers run radar, missile, and rocket systems. They handle complex gear under pressure. They follow strict safety steps. A mistake can hurt people. So they learn to do things right the first time.

The teaching side is just as strong. Instructors at the schools build lesson plans. They train large groups. They track who is passing and who needs help. That is real training and development work.

Not every Fort Sill soldier is combat arms. Cooks, supply clerks, mechanics, medics, and clerks all serve there too. The post runs like a small city. So the talent pool is wider than you might guess. Read each resume on its own.

How Do You Read a Fort Sill Veteran's Resume?

This is where most employers lose good people. The resume comes in full of Army terms. The hiring tool ranks it low. A human skims it and moves on. The candidate never gets a fair look.

Your applicant tracking system does not reject these resumes. It ranks them. A resume with military words and no civilian keywords sinks to the bottom of the list. It does not surface to the top. So a strong veteran can stay buried while weaker matches rise.

The fix is simple. Search both languages. When you look for a maintenance lead, search for the civilian term and the military one. Look for "shop supervisor" and "motor sergeant." Look for "trainer" and "instructor." You will find people the tool buried.

For more on this, our guide on what a veteran's service record tells you breaks down the documents you will see. You can also read how to read combat arms experience on a resume for the field artillery roles common at Fort Sill.

How Do You Compare an Officer to an NCO?

You will see both at Fort Sill. Officers run programs and plan operations. Senior NCOs run the day-to-day work and lead the teams. Both can be strong hires. The trick is to compare scope, not pay grade.

An officer who ran a battery managed people, budgets, and equipment. A sergeant first class who ran a training section led instructors and tracked results. Look at what each one was responsible for. Look at the size of the team and the stakes of the work.

Do not assume the officer is always the better hire. A senior NCO often has more hands-on, daily leadership reps. Our guide on how to compare officer and enlisted experience walks through this in detail. To set fair pay, see how to map a military pay grade to a civilian pay band.

Why Do Midsize Employers Win Near Fort Sill?

You might think the big defense firms grab all the talent. They do not. Big companies move slow. They have layers of approval. A separating soldier often waits weeks to hear back.

A midsize company can move in days. You can call the candidate yourself. You can make an offer fast. Speed wins. The soldier with a family in Lawton wants a job lined up before separation. The first solid offer often takes it.

You also have something the soldier wants. Roots. Many Fort Sill veterans want to stay in the area. They do not want to relocate to a coast. A local job is a win for them. So you are not fighting a bidding war. You are offering what they already want.

Where Do You Find Fort Sill Veterans Before They Separate?

The best time to reach a soldier is before their last day. They are still on post. They are planning their next step. You want to be in front of them then.

Fort Sill has a transition office that helps soldiers leave the service. They run job events and connect employers with talent. Start there. It is a clean, direct channel to people who are about to be on the market.

You should also know about SkillBridge. It lets service members work at a civilian company during their last months in uniform. The military still pays them. You get a working tryout at no payroll cost. SkillBridge is run by the Department of Defense.

For a deeper look at timing, read our guide on how to source veterans before their separation date. The Department of Labor also runs an employer hiring resource for veteran recruiting.

Is the Veteran Hiring Market Worth It?

Yes. The numbers back it up. Veterans are reliable hires who tend to show up and stay. The unemployment data shows they are a steady, employable group.

In 2025, the unemployment rate for all veterans was 3.5 percent. For non-veterans it was 4.2 percent. For Gulf War-era II veterans, the most recent wave, it was 3.6 percent. Veterans are not a charity case. They are a smart hire.

The story holds up across the country. You can read the full figures in the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report for veterans. The takeaway is plain. This group works.

How Do You Keep a Fort Sill Veteran Once Hired?

Hiring is half the job. Keeping them is the other half. Veterans are used to clear structure. They want to know the mission and the standard. Give them that and they stay.

Set up a real first 90 days. Spell out what good looks like. Give them ownership of something early. They will rise to it. A vague onboarding wastes a strong hire. Our guide on using a 30-60-90 plan to onboard a veteran shows you how.

Watch the one-year mark. Some veterans leave their first civilian job because it felt aimless. A good manager fixes that early. Read how to keep a veteran new hire past the one-year mark for the full playbook.

What About Veterans Elsewhere in Oklahoma?

Fort Sill is not the only source in the state. Oklahoma City has its own base talent pool. If your hiring reaches beyond Lawton, that market is worth a look too.

Our guide on how to hire veterans in Oklahoma City near Tinker AFB covers the maintenance and logistics talent there. If you hire across state lines, our Army-base guides for recruiting near Fort Hood and hiring in El Paso near Fort Bliss use the same playbook.

What Mistakes Do Employers Make With Fort Sill Talent?

A few common errors cost employers good hires. Most are easy to avoid once you know them. Here is what to watch for near Lawton.

The first mistake is screening out combat arms roles. A hiring manager sees "cannon crewmember" and assumes there is no civilian fit. That is wrong. Look at the leadership, the safety record, and the team size. The job title is not the whole story.

The second mistake is asking for a degree on every role. Many strong veterans skipped college and got their skills on the job. A rigid degree screen buries them. Ask what the role truly needs. Often it is hands-on skill, not a diploma.

The third mistake is moving too slow. You read about speed above. It bears repeating. A two-week silence loses the candidate to a faster firm. Set a goal to respond within a few days.

How Do You Start Recruiting Veterans Near Fort Sill?

Start with the talent that already did the hard part. The hardest step for a veteran is turning Army terms into a resume you can read. Many already did it.

Best Military Resume runs a pool of veterans who built civilian-ready resumes. Over 1,000 new profiles are added every month. More than 60,000 resumes have been built. That is a fresh, growing supply of candidates who translated their own experience for you.

You do not have to decode field artillery jargon alone. You can search people who already speak both languages. Many of them are near Fort Sill and want to stay in Lawton.

Fort Sill is one of the best local hiring edges in Oklahoma. The talent is trained, tested, and ready. Most of them just want to stay home and work. Be the employer who reaches them first. Reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool and start building your bench near Lawton today.