***See below story to see how to How to Get Daily Media Posts for You, Your Business or Hiring Team***
What about MY story you ask?
Alexander Nelson
Air Force Veteran | Merivis Salesforce App Builder Cohort
Shortly after receiving my first stripe.
Participating in the October 1999 Large Package Week were four C-17s and two C- 141s from Charleston. Joining the exercise were three C-141s from McGuire AFB, N.J., one C-141 from McChord AFB, Wash., three C-130s from Little Rock AFB, Ark., and another C-130 from Dyess AFB, Texas. Charleston was designated as lead wing. The Charleston contingent consisted of 45 maintainers, 6 aircrews, tactics, intelligence, weather, and other support staff. They dropped 2,500 soldiers plus another 700 at the post-mission drops at Geronimo landing zone near Fort Polk, LA. Additional missions, as part of the Joint Readiness Training Exercise at Fort Polk, gave C-17 aircrews practice landing on an austere landing strip while the C-141s also dropped personnel. On the first and last day of the drops on Oct. 4 and 7, C-17 aircrews dropped heavy equipment such as HUMVEEs, towed artillery and ammunition. C-141s immediately air-dropped soldiers to set up and use the heavy equipment following the C-17s. Oct. 5-6, the scenario was exactly the same for both days as they put on a demonstration for the general officers attending the CAPSTONE orientation course, a six-week course that introduces senior officers to the capabilities that each of the services possesses. The demonstration included two A-10 Thunderbolts that swept the area, followed by a C-17 that dropped a Container Delivery System pallets of supplies and three others that dropped heavy equipment items such as howitzers and vehicles. Lastly, the C-141s dropped the soldiers who then executed their mission of an airfield seizure. The C-130s airdropped and airlanded CAPSTONE participants. Within about a half an hour, the Army is required to set up and live fire their airdropped howitzers.
After graduating high school, I served in the United States Air Force as a Crew Chief responsible for many of the largest military jets in the inventory. Though my squadron was very active in multiple countries supporting mission requirements, I was primarily based stateside.
The base itself had some struggles with condemned living spaces, insufficient-manning and funding that led to limited access to medical care, very low morale and severe depression among many. Despite this, we were highly functional and consistently maintained the necessary extensive hours and days to ensure on-time mission capable aircraft were ready to meet the needs of the United States. It was pretty standard for many to forgo food and sleep on a regular basis as we worked through the night and well into the next day. Frequently, some of us would volunteer to help rejuvenate the base or organize base activities to boost morale when spirits would feel dangerously low. All of this while maintaining our regular duties. We all supported each other and we were not only successful in delivering critical mission requirements in these harsh conditions, but we also did it with excellent results.
Prior to honorably separating from the Air Force, I experienced a fall from a heavy aircraft while on duty in windy and icy conditions. This fall, combined with previous military related injuries, left me in extreme pain, with constantly varying degrees of mobility and has added major complexities to my life since.
Post military, I frequently found myself wondering how I was going to maintain housing, career and maybe even access education while trying to find ways to cover medical bills from military injuries. Then, how would I perform my daily tasks while dealing with them? I worked many long hours for years. I remember days of over 24 hours straight through, to try and just maintain. Many times, my injuries would flare up and limit mobility. This would frustrate employers and eventually I would be edged out. I was not able to take vacations with friends and was distant from holiday gatherings as I worked and struggled to find some level of sustainability. This became my normal life.
I pushed myself into roles that would bring me closer to sustainable careers and opportunity. Technical environments involving computer science and networking were always my passion right along with aerospace. I sought positions in aerospace to build on what I had done but most related companies were experiencing heavy layoffs and financial burdens. That combined with injuries made it difficult to obtain employment. I found management positions in telecom working with, the upcoming at the time, fiber networks and then the telecom industry started going bankrupt. One company I worked for called us in and the owner said, "We are sorry we have not been paid for our work and we can't pay you for the work you have done in the prior weeks." Once again, I was faced with potential homelessness, inability to meet my medical needs, financial hardship and potential obsolescence. That put me further off balance and each year after I was further from a sustainable future.
I started contracting, looking for my entrepreneurial strengths and sought education through self-study, all while slowly deteriorating. This new low was once again made the new norm for more years to come. Efforts to receive medical care were becoming futile and I started getting collection notices for my Veteran Affairs visits that were necessary to address the injuries from military service.
This cycle was perpetuated through many more events that left me feeling hopeless, disconnected and many times threatened or discarded by my community. Career was not in my future at this point. I realized that when I left the military, I also left my entire network of support and was basically starting my life from scratch with a few extra obstacles due to health and resources.
Note to transitioning military: YOU NEED to focus on your professional networking and mentorships a year before separation.
Almost autonomously, I continued to self-educate for future change and seek current opportunities to find a means of immediate survival. I continued to push my network experience while hunting down any resources I could find to learn cyber-security. I found the cyber training difficult to access and training that was readily available was usually outdated due to the fast-changing nature of the industry. I chased my long-standing interest in web development and thanks to the internet and the times, I was able to find some limited resources. I started adding those services to some of my contracting projects. While doing this, I could also feel that it was not enough to maintain my current state, let alone find the sustainable path on which I belonged. I was still trapped and slipping further from hope.
In the last couple of years, I have started to find work and training opportunities for web-development. Through web-development training, I have found even more opportunities for Salesforce development. Through a generous opportunity by a company, Pro-Sphere, I was given introductory training to the Salesforce platform. I found it aligned with my interests, offered growth potential and overall, I really enjoyed it. I still needed more experience and training to find a path to a career as a developer on the Salesforce platform. I now spend most days and nights learning Salesforce and providing pro-bono services in my free-time to veteran non-profits that need support on the Salesforce platform. This has provided major movement in a good direction but for now still does not help maintain my basic needs. I am striving to connect these experiences and push for more growth to achieve a sustainable system that will support these efforts through the remainder of my life. Fortunately, the connections I have made recently have helped find more opportunity. One of these has really made it a full career readiness experience by adding more than just technical training.
Through a community of veteran supporters in the Salesforce Ohana, I have been introduced to the Merivis Foundation. I was informed they were providing Salesforce training, I applied and shortly after I was invited in. I say invited because it was as if someone opened a door and invited me into their family. A family of transitioning military, military spouses and veterans.
It did not take long to realize, this was not just training. It was selfless people volunteering their time to ensure my success. It was a network of professionals preparing me for new roles by identifying opportunities to better my cultural fit and navigating conversations to find a mutually beneficial position. Most importantly, it was a connection to other individuals working for similar interests while creating a family of support and a pathway to a new career.
Merivis Foundation is helping to restore my hope for a better future by providing pathways and training in tech skills I need to transform my career.
I am now involved in a lot of developments in the Salesforce ecosystem and I am still only getting started. I am invigorated by work with Salesforce. I have seen life-changing opportunities coming closer and I have seen the transformation of those that have been involved in the Merivis Foundation’s previous efforts. I see possibilities, I see amazing supportive people, I see a veteran network that is becoming a family. I also see a way to prevent the nightmarish struggles and pitfalls I have experienced from ensnaring other veterans.
I am committed to raising $1000, before Veterans Day, to contribute to this organization that is not only transforming careers but building families. Small amounts go a long way, larger amounts can reach a multitude of veterans so they can support their families and communities for a lifetime through meaningful tech careers.
**BIG NEWS! An anonymous corporate donor is willing to MATCH up to $15,000 in our VeteransDay campaign!
Thank You Merivis Foundation for all that you do!
Merivis Foundation
Merivis Foundation supports veterans preparing for their next missions through training, mentorship and job readiness for Salesforce cloud technology positions. With a growing need for Salesforce certified professionals and an increasing number of underemployed veterans in the country, we bridge the gap to help veterans transition to civilian life and find great careers. Since we started in 2015, Merivis has impacted the lives of nearly 100 military veterans by supporting them in their transition to civilian careers. Through our Salesforce training programs, we've put them on the path to growing, in-demand technology roles and we couldn't have done it without every member of the Merivis community.
We invite those that have been a part of Merivis as students, alumni, volunteers, coaches, sponsors, advocates and friends to join the Merivis fundraising team in spreading the word and raising funds to host additional programs in support of our veterans. Our goal is to have 30 individuals raise $1,000 each before Veteran's Day and celebrate with us on Saturday, November 10th at the Accenture Memorial Walk benefitting Merivis.
Thank you to KLRU for featuring Sheldon Simmons, our board member and a graduate of the first Merivis cohort in their American Graduate series. To view more stories from the KLRU series "American Graduate: Getting America to Work" visit klru.org/americangraduate
How to Get Daily Media Posts for You, Your Business or Hiring Team
I will setup if needed your Twitter account then photograph and create a daily post on LinkedIn and Twitter (yours and mine) from various points of interest. I will do this over a 2 week period (14 days total) between now and New Years for each business that donates just $250 or more to Merivis Foundation, a training and mentoring organization that has already helped over 100 veterans including myself. The post will thank you for your support or tailored to represent your interests and be seen by my network of veterans, gov, business & tech.
MY TIME RUNS OUT ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 16th. I will not be able to process donations after that date.
Want to GET YOURSELF OR SWAG FEATURED? Message me (contact info below) and I will coordinate.
In the DC/Virginia area? I can meet you for coffee or at your office to discuss details
Let me know in a message that you have donated, the organization you wish represented and date/time so I can match receipt with the right org. Also, let me know that I have your permission to use your logo if you care to have it displayed otherwise I will do my best to use material design practices that fit the post. Other swag, business front images not in DC/VA area will be handled according to location and coordinated to maximize return. This should be easy and FUN!
Contact by private message
Twitter- @DIY_Code_School
LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-nelson/
