Veterans in Advanced Energy Profile: Chris Rawlings

Chris Rawlings, a 2021-2022 Veterans advanced energy fellow

Chris Rawlings, a 2021-2022 Veterans Advanced Energy Fellow, knew he wanted to be a Marine from a young age. He relied on his experience auditing aircraft maintenance centers to start his own energy efficiency business, VLED, and podcast, Energy Sense. To other veterans leaving military service, he says, try new things, find your tribe, use the available resources, and start building your support network early for a successful transition. As told to Jordan Bekenstein

Why did you join the military and what was your role?

I joined JROTC when I was young, and I found a group of friends through it that I enjoyed hanging out with. I attended JROTC summer camps and whether we had an obstacle course, a pull-up contest, or even drill competition, I was always trying to challenge myself. When I graduated from high school in 2002, I already knew that I wanted to be a Marine. 

I was an aircraft mechanic by trade. I used to troubleshoot aircraft systems and components and do light structural repairs. I worked on fixed-wing aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point, North Carolina with Marine Aircraft Group 14 (MALS-14). I was deployed twice to Iraq where I worked on helicopters. I first deployed to Al-Taqaddum, Iraq in 2005 and then Al Asad Airbase in 2006. I split my time between the maintenance shops and the flight line, so it was nice to see both worlds. 

How did the military influence your career trajectory into energy?

The Marine Corps adopted a program called AIRspeed, which incorporated Lean 6 Sigma methodologies. After attending that training, I was doing audits on the aircraft maintenance work centers and trying to figure out their production and costs—part of the costs were utility expenses. I saw how much it cost to run an aircraft hangar in terms of compressed air, electricity, and natural gas. When I got out in 2008, I went to college and found myself at Northrup Grumman technical services stationed at Fort Eustis, Virginia working on aircraft—again incorporating Lean 6 Sigma methodologies into my role. When I went to an entrepreneurship boot camp for veterans at Florida State University in 2014, I had the idea of using energy to start my own business. I had always wanted to start my own business, deep down, and I knew it needed to be about energy.

What are you most excited about in advanced energy developments, and what are you most concerned about?

I’m most excited about technology advancement that is going to help propel the transition. It will help the transition move smoother and faster if we can harness that tech and use it in the correct way, whether that’s through material sciences or the IoT (Internet of Things) and data-driven tech. Whether it’s capturing the data needed to understand the changes that we have to make or whether it’s through research & development, we’re in a window of time where our trajectory of growth in these fields is going to be way faster from 2000 to 2050 than it was from 1950 to 2000.

I’m most concerned about setting lofty goals and making the transition without understanding the overall impact and the potential negative effects that we might see, either economically or socially. I’m most worried that somebody or something might be left behind or unchecked during the transition. I agree that the transition needs to be just, but what does that mean? I think we need to understand how big these issues are. We might have to silo out some of them to get action done in certain areas, while at the same time we can also be cognizant of the repercussions in other areas and make sure the transition is just. The just transition could potentially keep some actors from taking action at all because they think it’s too much to take on at once, and that worries me. 

Why is energy important to US national security?

From a broad perspective—to keep an economy going, to keep society going—we need to have access to electricity, clean water, and what we think of as the bare necessities to live the best life we can. If that’s threatened, whether it’s through data breaches in a system that shuts down our pipelines or whatever the case may be, that’s something we need to protect and we need to keep it on the forefront of our minds. Two reasons—first, to protect ourselves and, second, to understand the impact geopolitically when we’re in discussions with other countries. When we’re bringing other countries to the table and talking about climate action, we need to understand the national security side as well.

Do you have advice you would like to share with other veterans?

Keep doing things that you enjoy and keep trying to find that tribe. When we’re in the military, we’re used to being part of a tribe and being part of something bigger than ourselves—that’s hard to replace. Before you transition out, prep yourself and get the ball rolling before you exit. Once you are out, try to work on building a network of support, because that’s one of the biggest pitfalls of veterans transitioning. More specifically, try new things—look at what you’re good at, what you have experience in, what you enjoy, and try to check off as many of those boxes when you take on a role, either as an employee or when you want to start your own company. There are a lot of resources out there now that didn’t used to be there for veterans. Most of them 100% free, so take advantage of those—start a LinkedIn profile, join a local veteran chapter, tap into the resources that are available to you.

What are you most looking forward to about the Veterans Advanced Energy Fellowship?

First and foremost, I’m looking forward to connecting to the other fellows, extending my network, and getting to know everyone that’s part of the fellowship. The second thing is learning from them. I still feel like the new guy after 8 to 10 years in the industry. I do a monthly podcast called Energy Sense where I interview subject matter experts in the energy field for about 20 minutes once a month. It’s cool because I get to learn a different perspective on energy or environment. I feel like I’ll be able to do the same kind of thing with the fellowship. I also hope to offer my experience and share the perspective of a small business owner contractor from Virginia.