• Born in Fairfax, Virginia.

• Married for 15 years to Leslie, and has twin 22-year-old stepdaughters, Lauren and Audrey, and a 14-year-old daughter named Karlie.

• Describes himself as a hardworking and dedicated person with a good sense of humor. He likes to have a good time, but he gets the work done in a safe way.

• Enjoys coaching his daughter's softball team, hunting, fishing and farming.

• Inspired by God and his family. He said his family drives him to want to do the best that he can to support them and to keep the lights on for the customers.

• Can't live without his flashlight and climbing tools.

• Describes his nine-member line crew like a big family who takes care of each other.

Early Years

I got into the utility industry right out of high school, and I've been with my company for 20 years. My first job was as a groundman. I assisted the linemen with various kinds of work like setting poles, working underground, fixing cable faults and troubleshooting.

Day in the Life

Every day is different for us out in the field. We have four linemen in the shop, and we do things like running wire underground and fixing broken poles. We work on the construction side. The operations team troubleshoots problems, and we solve them out in the field.

On the Job

We just finished a large project that involved moving poles outside a substation. We also relocated a recloser and built a seven-pole line. During the job, our crew had to kick the line over by 80 feet and pull new conductors. Moving the line over was a good learning experience for some of our younger crew members.

Learning Curve

In my opinion, it takes a long time to make a lineman. Some of the new workers may think they're linemen after completing a four-year apprenticeship program, but they won't become true linemen until they get some years of experience under their belts. Even after 10 years in the industry, most linemen are still learning new tricks of the trade.

Challenges and Rewards

One of the rewards of working as a lineman is helping a homeowner who has gone without power for 20 hours after a wind storm. The challenge is working long hours with very little sleep when you have a storm roll in.

Safety Lesson

The most important thing about a job is always having a way out. Whatever situation you get yourself into, you need to always be a couple steps ahead in case something goes wrong. For example, one time the wire pulled out of the sleeve when we were splicing the 477 wire. To jump the disconnects we were taking off line, we used a mac jumper, which produced a flash. Since that happened, I always tell the younger guys to not work step by step but always be thinking two steps ahead.

Storm Moment

The storm that most sticks out in my mind was the one that came through Louisiana about nine years ago. It was a hurricane that hit the East Coast and devastated the whole area. We were working 16 to 18 hours a day for two weeks.

Another storm that I remember was in 1998, when they sent us to New York on a road trip to work for Niagara Mohawk. We were able to see Lake Placid, and we worked on fixing the distribution that had been torn completely down during the ice storm.

Life as a Lineman

I like to be challenged on a regular basis. As a lineman, you never work on the same job in the same way. Linemen are also great people to be around.

Looking Ahead

Eventually, I would like to take a foreman job. I also would like to retire, spend more time with the family and go into farming full time. I enjoy raising cattle. We already have about 12 to 15 cattle on our farm.