From the Motor Pool to Logistics Management
Twelve years in an Army motor pool, a SkillBridge placement in the last six months of service, and a job offer before separation.
Tomas B.
Logistics Management Specialist · Boston MEPS
“They made me an offer before I separated. I never had a gap. That is the part I tell people about.”
Tomas spent twelve years in an Army motor pool. Property accountability, maintenance scheduling, parts ordering, and by the end of it running the whole operation for a battalion. He knew, in his words, where every wrench was.
What he did not know, eight months out from separation, was what he was going to do next. "I had a skill set that everybody told me was transferable and nobody could tell me transferable to what."
His career counsellor mentioned SkillBridge, a programme that lets a service member spend their last hundred and eighty days working somewhere civilian, on military pay, with the unit still carrying them. The placement that came up was at the Boston processing station, in logistics.
"Property is property. That part I could do on the first morning. What I could not do was tell you how a station runs, and that is what the placement was actually for. There are applicants moving through the building all day, and everything you own has to be exactly where the record says it is, because somebody is going to need it in ten minutes."
He describes the difference between the two jobs as scope rather than difficulty. A battalion motor pool has one customer. A station has a building, a testing suite, a medical section, and a schedule that does not move.
The station made him an offer before his placement ended. He started as a civilian the week after he separated.
"Veterans preference got me looked at. Twelve years of doing the work got me hired. People mix those two up and it costs them."
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Transcript
I spent twelve years in the Army motor pool. Property accountability, maintenance scheduling, parts. By the end I was running it for a battalion.
About eight months out from separation my career counsellor mentioned SkillBridge. I had never heard of it. The placement was at the Boston station, in logistics, and the first thing that struck me was how much of it I already knew. Property is property.
What I did not know was how a station runs. Different rhythm entirely. You have applicants moving through the building all day and everything you own has to be where it says it is.
They made me an offer before I separated. I never had a gap. That is the part I tell people about.