Retired Marine Corps officers Kevin Schmiegel and Paul Cucinotta didn’t know each other before serving together during the early years of the Global War on Terror. Their bond would continue, morphing into a shared commitment to helping veterans thrive after the military.
“My dad served in the Marine Corps in the 60s and was a Vietnam-era Veteran. It was funny; my dad never talked about his service or really encouraged me to serve, almost selfishly, because I didn’t encourage my son to serve either because I would worry about him endlessly. But when my dad talked to his friends who served with him, he was a different person,” Schmiegel explained. “In order for me to go to Holy Cross for college, he told me I’d have to find a scholarship somehow because I had five brothers and sisters. We went down to the recruiting office, and I got officer selection combined into my package and got hooked into making the decision that way. It really amounted to what I saw in my dad that was different when he talked about his service and how he was connected to the community. That meant something to him that I never really understood until I was part of it myself.”
Though they didn’t grow up anywhere near each other, Cucinotta’s story had a similar start.
“My dad was a Marine for a short time, and his fondness for the Corps really rubbed off on me. The idea of service really came from my grandfather, who was a World War II veteran serving in the Navy. All his brothers served as well, and he lived in a small town in New Jersey where he actually built the VFW and started their chapter,” Cucinotta shared. “I would go there as a kid, and we’d do events, and I loved it. When he passed away, we did his celebration of life at that VFW.”
Inspired by their fathers, both men sought a path to wearing the uniform. And not just any uniform — they wanted to be Marines. Cucinotta admitted that he began writing to recruiters as a young boy and still has the letters they wrote back, telling him he had to wait until he was 18. Both became artillery officers, Schmiegel in 1989 and Cucinotta in 1992.
“We actually both served in the same battalion together from 2002 to 2003 in combat,” Schmiegel said. “I was involved with the planning process for force infrastructure, and later in my career, I was in charge of the enlisted assignments monitors. That was 60 specialists who were assigning 172,000 Marines worldwide. I also worked with General Jim Jones. I was his aide when he was the NATO and U.S. European Commander and then again on the peace process in the Middle East when he was a special envoy under President George W. Bush.”
Cucinotta’s career was highly operational as well, with multiple deployments. He even did a three-year stint as an exchange officer with the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment.
“I got to see this joint force really up front, and as a young officer, I thought, like we all do, Marines are the only thing out there. But the reality is there are so many great young men and women across all the services who serve. It helped me open my aperture to see that,” Cucinotta explained. “When I look at service, I don’t just define it by where you served or who you served with; I define it by the fact that you served right and volunteered to serve. You stepped up.”
Schmiegel retired in 2009 as a lieutenant colonel after 20 years, and Cucinotta retired in 2019 after 27 years of service as a colonel.
“You think about where we are now as a country and what our mission really is or what we’re trying to achieve by showing service members, veterans, military spouses and their families as thriving and successful as a result of our service and not in spite of it,” Schmiegel said. “That’s because we have lived and breathed this. Our fathers did, grandfathers and even our kids. We want the future viability of the all-volunteer force to be secured, and that is at great cost to many things we experienced.”
After retiring, Schmiegel went on to serve as the Chief of Staff for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, launching Hiring Our Heroes before going to Operation Gratitude. Cucinotta joined him for a time, and both were looking for something more—something that felt like a new North Star with purpose.
With that in mind, the two came together to create and launch ZeroMils. The organization connects corporations with military employment initiatives, building strong Employee Resource Groups as well as community giving and engagement.
“When you’re in an environment like that, rolling your sleeves up with somebody else and getting stuff done, you can see the value,” Cucinotta said.
By aligning individual passions and brand values with the missions of various organizations, ZeroMils creates tailored opportunities for collaboration and support. This approach not only amplifies the efforts of nonprofits but also enhances corporate social responsibility initiatives, fostering a culture of giving back and community engagement.
“We’re not broken. We’re not victims. A vast majority of us are thriving as a result of our service and not in spite of it,” Schmiegel shared. “There are 50 states across the country from the top of Alaska to the tip of Florida, from the southern part of California to the tip of Maine. We’re just going to try to make a difference where we can, when we can.”
You can learn more about ZeroMils here.