Wireless Infrastructure Industry Salutes Military Veteran Career Training Program

November 11, 2014 / Carrollton, Texas – Senior executives in the wireless infrastructure industry today saluted a career training program for military veterans being conducted by Carrollton-based GrayWolves Telecom (GWT), calling it a “template” that should be replicated around the country to spur economic growth and strengthen U.S. competitiveness.

Giving military veterans the skills to help construct and maintain wireless network facilities “is not only our moral obligation – it’s smart business, too,” said GWT CEO Lisa Hanlon at Wireless Warriors Lead the Pack!, a Veterans Day event that spotlighted a training program that’s already sent former military personnel into GWT’s workforce.

“With smartphones, tablets, laptops, and all the rest, there is such demand for mobile data that hundreds of jobs in Texas and thousands of jobs around the country have gone unfilled because workers have not received adequate training. That’s what our program is all about – to help fill that void and give our veterans the career training they’ve earned for helping keep this country strong and free,” Hanlon said.

Today’s event included a demonstration of how veteran-trainees receive special safety instruction in repairing towers, antennas, and other wireless facilities. Two recent graduates of the training program – former Army Sergeant First Class Joey Morrissette, who is now a GWT senior foreman and former Army Command Sergeant Major Angel Ramos, who is now with Warriors4Wireless, conducted the demonstration.

Joining Hanlon on the dais were Carrolton Mayor Pro Tem Bob Garza; Jonathan Adelstein, the President and CEO of PCIA – The Wireless Infrastructure Association, which is helping spearhead efforts to strengthen veterans job training programs; Kelley Dunne, the CEO of Warriors4Wireless (W4W), the private-public non-profit that has helped GWT establish and conduct its training program; Jim Tracy, the President of Legacy Telecommunications, Inc., and Monty West, the EVP of Plano-based Goodman Networks.

“The wireless infrastructure industry will continue to grow exponentially – but we need a qualified workforce to help build next-generation wireless facilities,” Adelstein said. “With resources made available to PCIA through the Department of Labor, and our broad representation across the entire industry ecosystem, we will give a new generation of veterans the chance to develop career-changing skills in our expanding industry. We’re developing a broad-based training program designed to meet employer demand across a range of specialties, including tower systems, DAS and small cells, site acquisition, project management and RF design.”

“The GrayWolves program has given us job security and the chance to pursue meaningful careers,” said Ramos. “We’re honored to help build the wireless network of the future.”

“Veterans want an opportunity to transfer the discipline and work ethic they learned in the military to the private sector,” Dunne said. “We need to strengthen our efforts to ensure that programs like the one here at GrayWolves take root across the country.”

Tracy, whose son recently left military service and is enrolling in the W4W training program, said, “Legacy remains committed to helping our warriors become ‘wireless warriors.’”

“Military veterans are a great source of qualified workers for our industry,” said West. “We are doubling our efforts at Goodman to train and hire veterans.”

GWT, PCIA, W4W, and their allies plan to continue to grow and expand the training program.

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