Veterans and Military Families Find New Home Base at Gilbane

Captain Joshua "JT" Thomlinson Aaron is a West Point Academy graduate who spent six years in active duty for the Army. He traveled the world as a combat engineer, enhancing the safety and security of U.S. interests and building new spaces for foreign partners.

Trudy Dunn is a military spouse and HR professional who worked for the Department of Defense (DoD) for eight years during her husband’s nearly two decades in uniform.

For both, there came a critical moment of transition: What would life look like after the military?

For both, Gilbane provided them with the answer.

“It all started because Gilbane found me at a conference I was attending for transitioning military members,” JT recalled. “They had a SkillBridge program already developed, and it impressed me off the bat. When I sat down with Gilbane, it all clicked together.”

SkillBridge is a program through the DoD that allows service members to gain valuable civilian work experience through specific industry training, apprenticeships, or internships during the last 180 days of service. Gilbane Chicago has a robust SkillBridge partnership, and JT wasn’t the only one impressed. He made a strong impression on Gilbane, and the company hired him in June as a full-time senior project engineer at the end of his internship.

“It set me up the best I could have been for that transition,” he said.

SkillBridge is also a part of Trudy’s story with Gilbane.

After working with DoD, she was aware of the program. She has seen firsthand how transferable the skills developed during military service and by resilient military families can be in private-sector contexts. So, when a company participates in SkillBridge and other recruitment efforts, Trudy knows they see the value of veterans.

“Construction and the armed forces are very similar,” she said. “There is a need to be results-driven in both professions; and the skills that individuals learn while on active duty or in the reserves can significantly impact the construction industry.”

As an inclusion and diversity specialist for Gilbane, Trudy brings that lens to the recruitment and hiring processes. She loves having conversations with prospective hires who have worked in the military and underscores for them that Gilbane is a great place for them to land.

“The harder part of the transition is not just going to work—because you can easily learn a skill—but finding an organization in which your colleagues feel like family, the same way that armed forces does. I think Gilbane does a fantastic job of creating family like relationships between coworkers, and quickly,” she said, adding that being a family-owned company helps bring that message home for new hires.

SkillBridge is a source of new talent in the organization. Once veterans arrive in Chicago, Gilbane provides additional support to make them feel at home. Trudy is the chair of Gilbane Chicago’s Military Advantage Employee Resource Group, which—like other ERGs—provides a space for connection and collaboration, both for veterans and allies.

As she seeks to grow the group, Trudy wants her colleagues with no military service or connection to know they’re encouraged to join.

“Veterans are coming into the organization, trying to learn this new space, so allies are important,” she said. “The bond you develop when you’re in the military, you can have that here at Gilbane between ERGs, between working in the field—it is a very similar feeling.”

In addition to relationship building through the ERG, Gilbane Chicago gives back to the community at large. At the start of the school year, the ERG donated school supplies for the children of the Great Lakes Naval Base. The company also has a long history of supporting Honor Flight, a non-profit dedicated to transporting as many United States military veterans as possible to see the memorials of the respective war they fought in Washington, D.C., at no cost.

To celebrate Veterans Day this year, Gilbane Chicago hosted a lunch and learn featuring several veteran team member speakers, and the menu included a sampling of MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat, which are pre-prepared and cooked meals that are put into a light container to eat later, primarily used by the U.S. military.

JT is still new to the company, but as he gets his feet under him, he hopes to be as supportive as he can for the ERG, SkillBridge, and all of Gilbane’s efforts to recruit, support, and celebrate veterans.

“This is something I've benefited from tremendously, and I want to be a value add in developing it,” he said. “Gilbane is a great place to land as you transition because this market isn’t so different from how the military does business, and this particular company, Gilbane in Chicago, is extremely welcoming.”