Every day is Veteran's Day at broker-dealer Drexel Hamilton.
Drexel was founded in 2007 by Vietnam veteran and two-time Purple Heart recipient Lawrence Doll with the goal to provide opportunity for America's military veterans and service-disabled veterans to pursue civilian careers.
In 2012, there were 35 employees. Today the firm has grown to nearly 100 employees, 42 of whom are veterans; 24 are service-disabled.
Dan Boyle, vice president of institutional sales at Drexel Hamilton, is one of those vets.
Boyle joined the U.S. Marine Corps after college.
"I was studying [finance] with the intent to get in the industry, but after 9/11 that changed for me," Boyle said. "On Sept. 12, I decided to enlist in the Marine Corps."
He tried to enlist, but he was told he would be better off enlisting as a college graduate since he was so close to graduation. He went on to get his degree in finance from Temple University and in 2003 he went into the Marines.
Boyle was deployed twice to Iraq, in 2005 and in 2007.
During his second deployment – on April 22, 2007 and just 48 hours after one of his daughters was born – Boyle's convoy was hit with an improvised explosive device.
"My vehicle rolled over, the vehicle behind me was [ruined] catastrophically. We lost five men in that vehicle."
Boyle considers himself lucky.
