Earning My Stripes – A Veteran’s Story

My name is Preston Abadie and I was born in Amarillo, Texas. My dad was an Air Force Aviation Technician and my mom was a buyer for Hart, Schaffner & Marx. I’m the oldest of 5 kids. I’m also a devoted husband, father and grandfather. My wife, Carol and I have 3 kids and 12 grandkids.

There are many things that help define me. While family is one, the other is the time I served as a U.S. Army Combat Medic.

I felt a duty to serve in the Army at an early age. College wasn’t on my radar at the time and I didn’t want to be confined in a classroom fresh out of high school. Instead, I chose to “Be All You Can Be” in the Army and earn my stripes.

I enlisted in 1984 and chose Combat Medic as my Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). After basic training, I went through Advanced Instruction Training (AIT) for my MOS. I learned volumes of medical terminology, techniques, triage and more.

My duty stations were Fort Bliss, Texas, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Grenada and Honduras. I enjoyed my experiences in the Army but chose to leave and start a family.

I’ve been with Rocket Companies since June 2012 because I was referred by a team member. Even though I’m a veteran, I wasn’t recruited by a veteran recruiting team. In fact, I don’t believe the veteran recruiting team existed in 2012. There was just one person tasked with recruiting veterans. After I was hired, I collaborated with him to recruit veterans through some shared experiences and networking.

Currently, we have an entire team of folks dedicated to the veteran hiring experience. They’re focused on recruiting top notch talent that’s a fit for our culture, our business and our environment. I work with a couple of them on our Veteran Team Member Resource Network.

Rocket Companies is significantly different than other companies around veteran recruiting. Rocket Companies recognizes the value of veterans. There are veterans from all walks of life and they are great at executing. Veterans embrace our culture and our ISMs, much like the training they received in the military.

Recognizing this value and recruiting veterans for open positions at Rocket Companies is exemplary of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives as well as our Team Member Resource Networks (TMRNs).

Team Member Resource Networks are instrumental to our DEI initiatives. Rocket Companies has 13 different TMRNs. The TMRNs are important because they give people a forum to discuss shared experiences and create an environment where team members can thrive within Rocket Companies. Each TMRN is open to all Family of Companies team members, serving a unique purpose while being focused on the 4 strategic pillars : educate, develop, community and act.

I am the president of the Veterans TMRN. As the current president, the TMRN officers and I have created a plant to promote inclusivity, self-identification as a veteran, promoting awareness about veteran-specific dates and hosting events that are important to veterans. These are geared towards those suffering from PTSD, spouse and partner issues, veteran’s benefits, community service and more.

We promote an environment that allows members to participate, contribute and share their stories openly, and seek to understand the various perspectives from our members.

We encourage anyone to join the Veterans TMRN. We even have a teams channel devoted to spouses, partners and family members called Network Auxiliary.

My most memorable occasion with the TMRN was my chance to speak with Hershel “Woody” Williams, the only surviving Congressional Medal of Honor recipient from World War II.  Woody was a U.S. Marine that served at the battle of Iwo Jima. Woody has definitely earned his stripes and I’m still working on mine.