Army veteran John Pomelow’s commitment to service was far from over after 12 years on active duty and three deployments.
After graduating from the Home Depot Foundation’s Path to Pro skilled trades training program on Fort Bragg, North Carolina he chose a lower-paying role with Habitat for Humanity over a more lucrative offer, continuing his mission to serve by building affordable housing for the community, including victims of Hurricane Florence.
In recognition of his unwavering dedication, The Home Depot Foundation recently orchestrated a surprise for Pomelow and his family. Believing he was simply being recognized for his service at their annual Store Managers meeting, Pomelow was gifted with a paid-off mortgage, $10,000 in tools to equip his new contracting business, and a $5,000 grant for each of his three children’s education.
Pomelow and his family took part in a video in January that they thought was being made to show real-life connections to the program. They then received an invitation to the meeting, where the presentation took them by complete surprise.
“You hear about company values, but everyone there actually believes them and lives them out,” he said.
Pomelow was in eighth grade when the 9/11 attacks occurred. The following year, he saw an Army recruiting commercial.
“At 14 years old, you're too young to join, but I called anyway and just went through the process, and weeks later, I got a denial letter saying I'm too young, but, hey, thank you so much, here's some cool swag, but hey, when you turn 17, give us a call back,” he said.
After graduating from high school in 2006, Pomelow was trying to figure out what his next steps were going to be.
“The school was in a church. That's where the connection all makes sense,” he said. “I talked with other veterans and asked them, you were in the Air Force, what was that like? Navy, Army, Marines, just getting everyone's perspective. And it really just came down to, hey, if you're called to serve, just serve, just pick one, so we prayed about it, and it just really felt like the Army, especially going back to the story of being 14 years old, that just makes sense.”
Pomelow held two different jobs in the Army during his first eight years of service – he was in artillery and deployed to Iraq twice before making the move to counterintelligence and then being medically retired after 12 years.
“I just couldn't keep up anymore,” he said. “The wear and tear over the 12 years, the deployments, the training.”
Pomelow said his wife compared the military to civilian transition to jumping off a cliff.
“My wife always relates it to jumping off of a cliff, because you're hoping and praying something's gonna soften the land or catch you on the way down, and what that was for us was the Path to Pro program.”
Courtney Jenkins, from the Home Depot Foundation, said Path to Pro is one-third of the foundation’s philanthropic mission.
“We're focused on providing safe and affordable housing, as you know, for veterans,” she said. “We're also focused on helping communities rebuild after natural disasters. And then we have our newest pillar, which is not very new anymore, because we've been doing this for a while now. But it's really about training the next generation of skilled tradespeople, so think carpenters, electricians, plumbers and HVAC specialists.”
Jenkins said there are currently about 300,000 or so open roles in the trades, and over the next 10 years, that number is expected to grow to about 4.1 million.
“ If we don't have people like John who are interested in learning these skills that are so necessary and important to keep our nation running, we're going to be in big trouble,” she added.
So far, the program has introduced about 600,000 people to skilled trades careers and has trained about 70,000 people.
From now through April 30, The Home Depot Foundation’s annual Spring Volunteering Campaign will also see thousands of associates across the country complete projects that transform lives and neighborhoods.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
