Kevin Gaston spent 20 years in the U.S. Army working on helicopters.

Now the 49-year-old Lawrence man hopes that experience will help him find a similar job when he attends a military veterans career fair Wednesday in Topeka. Although he’s been out of the Army for a few years and held other jobs, he’s been jobless since May.

“I’m looking for something in aviation or telecommunications,” Gaston said. “The reason, quite frankly, is the salary. Those are good-paying jobs.”

Military veterans seeking jobs can attend the fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Colmery-O’Neil Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 2200 Gage Blvd. It will be in Recreation Hall, building 24, room A113.

The career fair is being conducted by the Kansas Department of Commerce and its Lawrence and Topeka Workforce Centers. A veterans career fair also will be held in Overland Park in the American Legion’s Dwight Cowles Post 370, 7500 W. 75th St. It will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Anywhere from 50 to 100 veterans visit the Lawrence Work Force center, 2540 Iowa, each week looking for jobs, said Scott Hoy, veteran program specialist. Most are in their 30s and 40s, he said. Many of them also are older veterans from the Vietnam War era and even some who are older who served at the times of the Korean War and World War II, Hoy said.

“There are some from Iraq and Afghanistan but most of them have kind of gotten things lined up,” Hoy said. “A great majority of them are using their GI Bill to go back to school and are attending KU.”

At 69, Jim Robbins expects to be one of the older veterans attending the Topeka job fair. Robbins, from Baldwin City, served in the Coast Guard and was trained to be an electronics technician. That training helped him find work with several companies as a civilian.

Robbins last worked in a research laboratory at Kansas University but that ended two years ago when funding for his position expired. He wasn’t ready to retire and has been looking to find something else. He thinks his age might be making employers reluctant to hire him.

“As soon as they (employers) found out how old I was they found other reasons not to hire me,” Robbins said. “There were several jobs I could have walked right in to and done, I know.”

Employers generally like veterans because they had to have a good work ethic to last in the military, Hoy said.

“They have the mindset from the military that when they are asked to do something they do it,” Hoy said.

Among the firms that will be looking for workers are Frito Lay, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the Kansas Department of Transportation and Kansas Department of Corrections.