????當今世界，要成為一家財富500強公司（Fortune 500）的初級主管，通常需要做以下準備工作：上大學，參加某家大公司的管理培訓項目，或許還需要攻讀一個MBA學位。但丹尼斯?克蘭西顯然是一個異類。這位29歲、滿臉洋溢著青春活力的年輕人在亞馬遜公司（Amazon）鳳凰城倉儲中心擔任營運經理（亞馬遜公司在全美各地共建立了34個倉儲中心），負責確保由他監管的數十個工人準確地分揀、包裝產品，并按照指定路徑將其遞送給亞馬遜公司的數百萬客戶。

????然而，克蘭西接受的培訓并不涉及物流管理學位。相反，這位西點軍校（West Point）畢業生曾是駐伊美軍的一位步兵排長，隨后又在位于科羅拉多州斯普林斯市的美國陸軍空間和導彈防御司令部（U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command）擔任了一段時間的運營軍官。他的具體工作是掃描數字地平線，搜索瞄準美國、正在飛向美國本土的洲際彈道導彈（一旦發現目標，他需要在不到30分鐘內與中校商議應對之策，后者的職責是啟動導彈防御系統，以拯救我們所知的這個世界）。

????那么，一個受訓目的在于保護美國免受導彈襲擊的軍人為什么愿意效力于亞馬遜這樣一家公司呢？畢竟，亞馬遜的使命平淡乏味，就是不懈努力，壓低大小貨物的零售價。“我是在旺季被招募進來的，”克蘭西說。他所指的是亞馬遜公司那段混亂的、全員發動的時期，負責銷售的平民通常將其稱為圣誕節前的購物高峰期。克蘭西稱，2010年9月加入亞馬遜公司后，正好趕在“旺季”即將來臨，他需要在非常短的時間內“強化訓練”——還沒有完全褪去軍人烙印的克蘭西還時常使用一些軍事用語。“能來這里工作讓我非常興奮，”他說。“我之所以留在這里，是因為這家公司的領導層，以及我們與戰友之間融洽的關系。”

????“戰友”指的是亞馬遜公司的小時工，他們在商業世界中的地位相當于軍隊中的士兵。克蘭西對其雇主和下屬的忠誠似乎謙卑得有點令人難以置信，請不要驚訝。這僅僅是以亞馬遜為代表的財富500強公司（亞馬遜位居第56位）因大膽招募在軍隊中成長起來的人才而收獲的眾多好處之一。

????實際上，越來越多的美國公司開始雇傭一大批訓練有素、剛剛從軍隊退役的軍官和士兵，亞馬遜公司僅僅是其中之一。在某種程度上，這些公司其實也在填補一項社會需求，因為五角大樓通常更善于打仗，幫助退役軍人找到平民工作并非其特長。2011年，在911恐怖襲擊之后服役的240萬老兵【美國勞工部（the U.S. Department of Labor）將這一群體歸類為“第二次海灣戰爭老兵”】的失業率高達12.1%，遠遠高于美國非老兵人口的失業率（8.7%）。年齡在18歲至24歲之間的男性退伍軍人的失業率為29.1%，而美國同一年齡段非老兵男性人口的失業率“僅為”17.6%。

????亞馬遜的物流中心主要由退伍軍人負責運營。

????In a world where the typical preparation for becoming a junior executive at a Fortune 500 company is to go to college, sign on to some big corporation's management-training program, and perhaps pick up an MBA, Dennis Clancey stands out. The fresh-faced 29-year-old is an operations manager at an Amazon.com warehouse in Phoenix, one of the 34 Amazon runs across the U.S. He oversees scores of workers who make sure products are accurately picked, packaged, and routed for delivery to Amazon's millions of customers.

????Clancey's training, however, didn't involve earning a degree in the business of logistics management. Instead, the West Point graduate served as an infantry platoon leader in Iraq and then as an operations officer with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Colorado Springs. There he scanned the digital horizon for incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles aimed at the United States. (If he'd detected one, he would have had less than 30 minutes to advise the lieutenant colonel whose job it was to initiate the missile defense system to try to save the world as we know it.)

????Why would someone who'd been trained to protect America against incoming missiles want to work at a company whose more pedestrian mission is to relentlessly drive down retail prices on goods large and small? "I was attracted to peak season," says Clancey, referring to the chaotic, all-hands-on-deck period at Amazon that merchandising civilians would call the pre-Christmas shopping rush. Having joined Amazon in September 2010, just before "peak" began, Clancey says he needed to "train up" in a short period of time, military-speak not quite having exited his system. "That excited me to come here," he says. "I stayed because of the leadership and the relationships we have with associates."

????"Associates" are Amazon's hourly workers, the workaday world's equivalent of the military's enlisted personnel. If Clancey's aw-shucks fealty to his employer and his subordinates seems a little too good to be true, well, that's just one of the many benefits a company like Amazon (No. 56 on the Fortune 500) gets for placing its talent bets on those who cut their teeth in uniform.

????In fact, Amazon is one of a growing number of U.S. companies that is taking advantage of a bumper crop of well-trained officers and enlisted people transitioning out of the services. These corporations are filling a need too, in part because the Pentagon typically excels more at fighting wars than helping its personnel find civilian jobs. In 2011, unemployment among the 2.4 million veterans who have served since the 9/11 attacks -- a cohort the U.S. Department of Labor categorizes as "Gulf War-era II veterans" -- was 12.1%, compared with a rate of 8.7% for all nonveterans in the U.S. Male veterans ages 18 to 24 were out of work at a rate of 29.1%, compared with 17.6% for male nonveterans of the same age.

????Amazon's fulfillment centers, like this one in Phoenix, are largely run by veterans.