As a next generation national security company, Peraton is committed to the success of our customers’ missions – we measure success by the results they achieve, including lives saved, knowledge acquired, battles won, and information secured. Our employees, including hundreds of military veterans spanning multiple generations and every branch of service, are the heart of our ability to provide the technology and solutions customers require.
As we prepare to honor and celebrate our nation’s veterans, take a few minutes to get to know just two of the amazing veterans who help Peraton Do The Can’t Be Done every day of the year.
Meet Carmen
Systems Analyst
Melbourne, Florida
In 1998, when Peraton’s OS/COMET telemetry, tracking and control platform was first offered as a commercial off-the-shelf product for managing satellite missions and ground systems, Carmen was on the team. Twenty-one years later, Carmen, a Systems Analyst working in Peraton’s Brevard County, Florida office, continues to be an essential part of the OS/COMET team that has been central to missions and systems in every orbital regime and across the globe.
But before Carmen joined Peraton and its legacy companies, she enlisted in the U.S. Army. Carmen’s time in the Army began with basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, which she remembers fondly: “No veteran ever forgets being a trainee. It was an interesting study in human nature and a colorful experience. Rifle marksmanship was my forte, but I’ve never been asked to use that skill since then!”
After graduating basic training, Carmen was assigned as an Administrative Specialist to now-shuttered Vint Hill Farms Station in Virginia at the headquarters of the Army’s Electronics Materiel Readiness Activity, which was focused on electronics maintenance. During her assignment at Vint Hill, she “had opportunities to learn new technology and work with ambitious and knowledgeable people during the dawn of personal computing in the mid-1980s. There were many technology classes and enthusiastic people willing to teach computer skills.” Thanks to her military service, Carmen was on track for a lifelong career in computing.
When Carmen left the military, she went to work for a software engineering contractor on Vint Hill, and continued her education by taking evening classes, earning her computer information systems degree a few years later. While she didn’t find her transition from military to civilian life to be difficult, the contrast between military and civilian culture did require Carmen to learn to adapt to different expectations, social hierarchies and organizational goals.
Being a non-traditional college student as both a soldier and a civilian ultimately resulted in an opportunity for Carmen to teach an online class through a local college. Many of her students today are active duty, reservists, veterans, or dependents, and she tries to help and encourage them so they can they achieve their own goals.
“Serving in the military taught me the value of esprit de corps and that loyalty extends into supporting OS/COMET and being a part of Peraton,” notes Carmen. “I’m fortunate to work with such excellent people and play a small part in endeavors that not so long ago existed only in the wildest imaginations.”
Top Photo: Carmen on the range at Basic Combat Training at Fort Jackson…
Bottom Photo: …and today at Peraton.
Meet Jim
Program Manager
Bellevue, Nebraska
Over more than two decades in the U.S. Air Force – 21 years, 6 months and 3 days, to be precise – Jim had the opportunity to work with a phenomenal and diverse group of men and women who, in his words, “signed up to do whatever it takes to support our country’s Constitution, up to and including giving their life if necessary.” He credits the values, knowledge and valor of his uniformed colleagues with helping form the person he is today.
Photo: Jim visiting Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, France, where the U.S. Army Ranger Assault Group scaled 100-foot cliffs during the D-Day invasion in 1944.
Though he retired as a Staff Level Meteorologist and specialized in weather forecasting, environmental intelligence, and developing next generation weather systems, he also deployed with the U.S. Army to support multi-national contingency operations and helped manage the second largest software activity in the Air Force. Overall, he describes the experience as a “wild and very educational ride.” Today, Jim is a Program Manager in Peraton’s Bellevue, Nebraska office, supporting our Air Force Weather portfolio. He’s been with the company in its current and legacy form since 2006.
Jim credits the military with having the greatest impact on who he is today, outside of his own parents. It taught him to understand what’s truly important: treating all people with respect; being positive; thinking critically; continuing to grow as a person and develop your professional abilities; and focusing on results. He believes those qualities were critical in preparing him for his role at Peraton.
His transition from the military was not easy, though. He grew up in a military family, so when Jim retired, it was the first time in his life the military wasn’t telling him what to do, where to live, and how to act. But the support of his Air Force brethren and the embrace of his new Peraton family ultimately enabled him to make a successful transition to civilian life.
Jim was honored to be able to serve his country and would encourage anyone who has the chance to serve to do so in any capacity they can, not just for the honor of service, but for the many tangible and intangible benefits rarely found elsewhere in America.
“On this and every Veterans Day,” Jim says, “we remember all of those who served with valor and honor, and especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to provide us the freedoms we enjoy today.”