Scarlet Walker, the civilian world is calling.

Walker has been in the U.S. Army for the past 20 years.

But she's retiring in 2009, and is mapping out her transition to life without ranks and badges and a chain of command.

"I've been in the military most of my life, so I really don't know what's on the outside," said Walker, 39, of Atlanta.

Every year, about 200,000 people get out of the military, and nearly all of them enter the work force.

It can be an exercise in frustration. Some have been shot at, saved lives and ended others. But how does that translate to work in an office setting?

Walker's impending career move brought her to the Georgia International Convention Center earlier this month for a military career fair. Between 600 and 800 people with military ties attended - all with different backgrounds but with the same mission: finding a good job.

Larry Slagel once commanded a tank unit in the Marine Corps. Recognizing "there's not a whole lot of tanks rolling around the streets," he's now a senior vice president with the recruiting firm, RecruitMilitary, that hosted the job fair.

Slagel said it's the "intangibles" that soldiers pick up - handling stress under pressure, the ability to improvis - that make them valuable. It's easier than some veterans think to find a place in the American work force, he said.

That's what his company does. He describes it as the pipeline between military veterans and the civilian job market.

RecruitMilitary has been around for a decade but began doing job fairs last year. It held 13 fairs in 2006, scheduled 45 this year and is planning a fair tour for next year that would make Bon Jovi proud: 104 fairs in 44 cities.

More than 45 different companies or government agencies were represented at the job fair, including UPS, Walgreens, the U.S. Border Patrol, T-Mobile, Waffle House and Bartlett Tree Experts.

Aliya Abdullah, 35, stood in line talking to a recruiter at an IRS booth.

She's looking for a government gig with death benefits. She has an 11-year-old daughter and wants to make sure she's taken care of if something happens to her.

Adbullah is in the U.S. Army National Guard and works part-time as a massage therapist.

"I love massage, but I'm not quite sure I'm ready to do it full-time," she said.

Blake Miller was one of dozens of recruiters chatting up potential employees.

Clean cut and young, he's a field engineer-turned-recruiter for Schlumberger Oilfield Services from Houston. He hits the road four days a week to career fairs, military bases and two-year technical schools.

Miller is trying to find some field specialist - and the military is a great place to look. Sixty percent of the Houston company's field specialists have a military background, Miller said.

At the career fair, three people strolled up to his booth - two of them in military uniforms. He said hello and told them he's looking for people with electronics or mechanics backgrounds.

"No IT?" one asks.

"No IT," Miller says politely.

They thank him and move on to the next booth.