Allen and Joel speak with Frank Martinez, Talent Acquisition Specialist and Veterans Ambassador for Pearce Renewables. With 32 years of distinguished U.S. Army service and 13 years at Pearce, Frank shares invaluable insights on creating pathways for veterans in the renewable sector. Pearce is leveraging veterans' unique skillsets and fostering a supportive work environment, with an impressive 10% of their workforce self-identifying as veterans.

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Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, joined by my co host, Joel Saxum. Today, we're pleased to welcome Frank Martinez, Talent Acquisition Specialist and Veterans Ambassador for Pearce Renewables. Frank brings a unique perspective to our discussion combining 32 years of distinguished U. S. Army service with 13 years at Pearce Services. In his current role, Frank leads Pearce Renewables Efforts to recruit and train veterans for the renewable energy industry. This initiative draws on Frank's extensive military background and his deep understanding of the renewable sector. During his military career, which included both active and reserve service, Frank trained over 40, 000 service members.

Today, Frank will share insights into Pearce Renewable's veteran recruitment and training programs. He'll discuss how the company is creating pathways for veterans into renewables and explore the valuable skills. Veterans bring to the sector and Joel and I are looking forward to hearing about these initiatives in veteran recruitment and training for the renewable energy industry.

Frank, welcome to Uptime.

Frank Martinez: Good to be here, Allen. Thank you. And Joel for having me on the show today.

Allen Hall: So Frank, you have an extensive career in the military. My gosh. And I want to touch upon that just briefly because you don't run across people every day that have served over 30 years in the military.

That's right. And you want to just give everybody some insight into what you did with the U. S. Army?

Frank Martinez: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, you're right. I usually don't meet too many people that have 20 plus years, let alone 30 plus years. So that said, I know that it is pretty unique. I will tell you that, I love being part of the Army because I really cared about the mission.

And what was the mission over the last 20 years? As you remember, we were at war. I had a really vested interest in helping those that were preparing to go to war be part of that solution. And so I did that for the last 18 years of my career. I was an instructor trainer for units Army, Air Force, and Navy that were going overseas to deploy Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, all types of contingent operations worldwide.

So I was part of that and like you said there in the intro 40, 000 service members that I stood in front of and taught a subject to. And I'm very proud of that. So I was part of that solution that the army needed to get people ready to go to war. That is incredible. I think it's incredible as well.

Just the opportunity to do that. When I was in it I was 100 percent dedicated to that mission and how serious it was. Because we're talking about people's lives, we're talking about America's sons and daughters at this point. It really I knew at the time when I was doing it that it was much bigger than myself.

And so just to be part of that I wanted to ride that as long as I could,...