Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16A Marine Comes Home and Finds Solace in Colorado Career Opportunities in Piping for Transitioning Veterans | Spring/Summer 2016 Gavin Maxwell 7 you can find Gavin Maxwell at his new home in Hudson, CO, just outside of Denver, preparing for his day by scheduling rou- tine maintenance appointments for his 25 cus- tomers that he has acquired working for Tolin Mechanical as an HVACR technician. Not only does he have his own customer base, but he also responds to service calls via the dispatcher at Tolin. As an HVACR technician, Gavin works on equipment that deals with heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration in the Denver Metro area. He has a brand-new truck with a li- cense plate holder that reads U.S. Marines, Semper Fi. “I was with the ird Battalion First Marines (3/1) Lima Company out of Camp Pendleton, CA,” he said. “My MOS (job) was 03 11. My first deployment was the 13th MEU, which was sent to Iraq. My second deployment was the 31st MEU, which is stationed out of Okinawa, Japan. We went all through the South Pacific to create a mili- tary presence there.” Gavin le the Marines in 2009. He took a TAP (transition assistance program) week-long class that is designed to help Marines transition out of the military. It was in this class that Gavin first heard about the UA’s Veterans in Piping® (VIP®) program. It was only the second VIP welding class offered at Camp Pendleton. It involved 18 weeks of intensive welding training to be followed by a five-year apprenticeship with one of the United Association’s local unions to become a journey- man. Gavin was from Golden, CO, and he wanted to return to Colorado, so he joined Pipefitters Local 208 in Denver as a welder/pipefitter ap- prentice in 2009. Gavin said, “When I first got out of the pro- gram, I was welding. I graduated with nine weld- ing certifications and immediately starting working for Tolin Mechanical on the commercial side. Because of the economy, work started to get a little slow, and I was laid off. I sat home for a few days. I was used to the steady military paycheck, so I went to my boss and said, ‘I just really need to be working all the time.’ He asked me if I wanted ese Days