Building With Honor: A Veteran’s Journey from the Armed Forces to Gray

Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself, your career arc, and how your military experience was an influence. 

A: I recently retired from the United States Army after 20 years of service. I enlisted in 2004 and went from an E1 Private to an E8 First Sargent in which I retired. By the end of my career, I was running 132-man companies with my last one was roughly over 300 personnel across seven states. I’ve been deployed on four separate occasions to Iraq, and Afghanistan. When I retired, I wasn’t sure what I was going to fall into, and I’d actually never thought about construction, but it translates into the role I’m in now.  

In the Army, you go through a variety of training to prepare you for the experiences you’ll have on duty and to move into leadership positions. It felt normal for me at the time, but looking back it was pretty tough. Those training courses translate well due to the topics being different, and the structure remaining relatively the same. In the construction industry, you have to develop and train your team to achieve their goals and complete their missions.  

Q: What drew you to a career at Gray? 

A: I utilized the Career Skills Program offered by the military. This program helps service members that are transitioning out of the service. That’s actually how I got turned on to NexGen; I met Joseph Badgett at a job fair in Fort Campbell. He was out there at one of the booths and we just stayed connected. Then an opportunity at NexGen opened working under Chris McCormack, and it has been a great experience for me. 

Q: What is a typical day like for you in your role? 

A: My role largely focuses on reviewing policies and procedures and identifying areas for streamlining and improvements that will help the business. I’m also helping out with the training and development program that we are building for NexGen. 

Q: What skills from your service do you feel have been the most valuable in your work with Gray? 

A: We have an acronym in the Army. It’s called LDRSHIP. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. If you think about it holistically, you can use those principles and apply them to the everyday work that you’re doing here. I would say having that structure has helped me here.  

Trusting and relying on your team is another skill I had to learn quickly. If you try to do everything on your own, it’s likely going to fail. You have to utilize the team around you to be successful in the Army as well as in this industry. Trusting and working with your team to attack a problem and figure it out is crucial. 

Q: Is there a memorable experience since joining Gray that you’d like to share? 

A: I felt at home going to all the events. I’ve gone to the Executive Leadership training that we do as well as the Annual Gray Family Weekend. During that whole experience, I thought to myself, “Wow! This is a company that just really cares about its people.” 

Q: What sets Gray apart from other service providers? 

A: Gray has created a culture where everyone feels like they belong, and to have that sense of belonging was huge for me. There’s one thing that everybody says they always miss after they get out of the service: the camaraderie.  

Imagine spending 90% of your time with these people sharing very large hardships, whether it’s through a combat deployment or it’s through a training exercise that’s 30-plus days long, or sharing foxholes and getting rained on–and then suddenly that’s removed very quickly. It’s a shock. You just can’t replicate that camaraderie in many other places, but Gray has. 

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? 

A: Oh, you’ve got to be humble. There is always going to be someone that’s smarter than you in that room. If you don’t take the time to really just conceptualize what’s going on around you, you’re going to struggle, and then you’re not going to create that team aspect around you. I was a lot more successful once I changed my way of doing things and practiced more humility. Humility goes a long way.  

Q: What’s the best advice you can give to a new team member joining Gray? 

A: Like they said at Gray Family Weekend, be curious, have an open mind and don’t be afraid to ask questions.  

Q: Is there anything else you want your fellow team members to know? 

A: There’s a lot of hidden talent in veterans. They bring a lot to the table and they’re going to show up and excel if you give them the chance. So just work with them and understand that when they transition out, they may not tell you, but they’re going to be struggling with adjusting to things.  

For veterans here at Gray, we need to lean on groups like SPEAR. It’s great to have someone else who you can look at and say I know this person went through something similar. Whether you served for four years or 20 years, it is the same transition. The SPEAR EDC group helped me find a mentor here at Gray. It made a difficult transition a little bit easier.   

What is SPEAR? 

SPEAR (Specialized Efforts and Recruiting) is an employee resource group designed to aid veterans in transitioning from the military to civilian life at Gray. Recognizing the challenges veterans face, such as adjusting to a less structured environment and making independent decisions, SPEAR provides mentorship and counseling to ease this transition. The program assigns mentors to veterans for the first six months, offering guidance on workplace expectations, policy and procedures, as well as cultural differences. This support helps veterans become more independent and confident in their new roles, ensuring they do not feel overwhelmed or isolated. 

The inspiration behind SPEAR stemmed from a desire to create a meaningful and productive group for veterans. We wanted to leverage the military’s ethos of “leading by example” and transform it into a program that provides dedicated efforts in recruiting and community outreach. SPEAR aims to recruit veterans directly from military installations and helps them transition smoothly into civilian roles through internships and job placements. SPEAR also focuses on local community outreach, organizing events like the largest veterans fundraiser 5K in Kentucky, and encouraging veterans to engage in community service projects across the United States. 

SPEAR hopes to achieve a dual impact: easing the transition of veterans into civilian life and fostering a sense of community and purpose. SPEAR’s mentorship program offers 24/7 support, allowing veterans to ask questions they might feel uncomfortable asking their supervisors, such as how to fill out a timecard or what to wear to a company event. These ideas seem simple enough but transitioning from an environment where every aspect of your life is decided for you can turn an innocuous decision like what to wear into a stressful situation. This continuous support helps veterans navigate their new environment more comfortably.