Glynnis Landfair has firsthand experience with how military members feel when their active duty ends.
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| VEEP graduate Milton Smith, left, receives his certificate from Mike Lanoue, director of the Utah Electrical Training Alliance. Smith decided to stay in Utah and start his apprenticeship at Salt Lake City Local 354.
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| VEEP graduate Nathan Littlefield, left, receives his certificate from Lanoue. Littlefield also stayed in Utah for an apprenticeship at Local 354.
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She once had to work three jobs to support herself after leaving the Air Force in 1990, even though she had proven herself as a leader. Landfair earned the rank of sergeant and was a dedicated crew chief for fighter jets.
Loneliness. A lack of direction. Not being part of a team or something larger than herself. She experienced all of it.
Fortunately, her sister, Shawnna, was an IBEW member and journeyman wireman who "nagged" her about the benefits of membership. That persuaded Landfair to apply for the apprenticeship program at Salt Lake City Local 354 — not far from where she finished her military career at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
She was accepted and went on to a distinguished career as a journeyman inside wireman who now serves on the Eighth District Veterans Committee.
"I saw the lifestyle and the security, gave it a shot and never regretted it," she said.
But Landfair knows she was fortunate. Most veterans don't have a close friend or relative reminding them that the trades make for a great career. That's why she was thrilled that Local 354 hosted its first cohort of members through the Veterans Electrical Entry Program, or VEEP, earlier this year.
"I want anyone in the military to go from a brotherhood to a brotherhood," she said. "I don't want them to go through some of the things veterans have gone through. This program is one of the best out there to get people into the electrical industry and into the IBEW."
Local 354 will welcome two more VEEP cohorts in 2025.
"To me, it was a no-brainer,'' said Mike Lanoue, director of the Utah Electrical Training Alliance, a partnership between the IBEW and NECA. "It's a way to give back to our veterans and everyone who served our country."
International President Kenneth W. Cooper has long called VEEP a priority.
"What's great about it is that it extends the IBEW's long, proud history of supporting our veterans while also serving as a tool for meeting growing demand in the electrical industry," Cooper said. "We must continue to find ways to expand VEEP and Canadian veterans outreach across North America."
Atlanta Local 613 will host its first cohort beginning in April, giving VEEP a base in the South.
"We value our folks that have served in the military," Business Manager Kenny Mullins said. "We do what we can to help them, and I have several veterans on our staff. They tell me the transition to civilian life can be a little trying."
Started in 2019 in conjunction with the Electrical Training Alliance, VEEP provides a combination of virtual and in-person training to personnel while they are still on active duty.
The virtual training can be done wherever servicemembers are stationed across the world. The in-person training comes at local unions and their training centers offering VEEP.
It eases the worries of veterans looking for a career upon leaving the service. And it offers the IBEW skilled apprentices who are accustomed to working as a team to accomplish the goal.
Servicemembers completing VEEP must provide proof that they will be accepted into an IBEW local union's apprenticeship program. Many choose an area because of family considerations, but some are so impressed with the area hosting VEEP that they choose to stay there. Two of the 11 members of Local 354's VEEP cohort decided to enter its apprenticeship program.
"We're pretty proud of the fact we got involved with VEEP early on and we're doing a lot of things to make it better," Local 354 Business Manager Steve Woodman said.
Anchorage, Alaska, Local 1547 offered the first cohort, in part due to its proximity to a large number of military installations in the state. A handful of locations in Southern California added the VEEP curriculum during the last two years.
Now the program is starting to spread across the country.
"I think we've demonstrated a model that is working," said Greg McMurphy, the Electrical Training Alliance's assistant director in charge of VEEP's inside construction program. "It allows [JATCs] to select people that are likely to succeed and are ready to go into the job."
Atlanta and Salt Lake City are ideal locations for several reasons, McMurphy said.
Atlanta has one of the busiest airports in the world, making it easy to get to. The local construction market is booming. There also are large military installations in Georgia, including Fort Moore, Moody Air Force Base and Dobbins Air Reserve Base.
"There's a tremendous amount of transitioning servicemembers in that end of the country we want to serve," said McMurphy, a member and former apprenticeship director of Kennewick, Wash., Local 112.
Utah was the fastest-growing state in the nation from 2008 to 2023, according to data analyzed by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Salt Lake City has a booming construction market, and its airport is a hub for Delta Air Lines. It is also just 30 minutes from Hill Air Force Base, which is known primarily for the maintenance it performs on Air Force jets.
"There's a good transportation infrastructure there," said McMurphy, noting that Local 354 worked to find housing at an affordable cost for servicemembers attending the in-person training.
It also had veterans among its membership — like Landfair — who are willing to put in the work to make VEEP a success. She thinks the program can even play a role in lowering the suicide rate among veterans, which is 57% higher than among non-veterans in the U.S., according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Local 354 organizer Tony Sorro served in the U.S. Army in 2004-2008, which included one tour in Iraq. VEEP doesn't just help veterans learn on-the-job skills, he said. It also serves as a safety net with their transition to civilian life.
For instance, many struggle with mental health upon their return. Sorro said veterans like himself involved with VEEP can help participants learn how to navigate the VA system and even let their foremen know when apprentices need to miss time for appointments with mental health professionals. They also identify where benefits veterans earned under the GI Bill can apply to their apprenticeship.
"When you get out of the military, you get put back in the world and you sort of have to figure out your contacts," Sorro said. "VEEP bridges that gap."
Sorro, who is the Eighth District's representative on the IBEW Veterans Committee, grew up in a union family. His father and uncle were members of the Ironworkers, so he understood the value of a union trade and pursued it. But he still experienced the same feelings many newly discharged veterans do. He might have been lost without that union connection, he said.
"You feel alone. Even a roomful of people, you feel like you're by yourself," he said. "That's where my passion sort of hit the road. I wanted to get the word out that the IBEW can be there for veterans.
"A lot of guys don't know about a union," he added. "It's akin to the military in that you are part of something bigger."
Local 613 Training Director Russell Smith noted that relations between labor and management can sometimes turn contentious in the South, which has the most anti-labor laws in the U.S. But Local 613 and its signatory contractors quickly came together to fund VEEP at the local's training facility.
"When Greg offered us the opportunity to participate in something like this, both sides jumped in with no hesitation," he said. "I'm excited because it gives us a chance to show the nation how committed Atlanta is to helping veterans."
McMurphy said other IBEW local unions have expressed interest in hosting a VEEP cohort, especially with construction booming in many jurisdictions. The issue is funding. Additional revenue is needed to pay for the program, and not all local unions can do so. Lanoue said Local 354 was able to pay for it with a grant from the Labor Department's Apprenticeship Building America program.
It remains an ongoing challenge, but McMurphy is confident it can be met, allowing VEEP to spread across even more of the country. IBEW officials in Salt Lake City and Atlanta will be happy to spread the word.
"We've been pretty invested in our veterans for quite some time," Woodman said. "When they rolled this out, it was the logical extension to what we already had."