When Sgt. 1st Class Dwight Guyette retired from the Army earlier this year, his coworkers surprised him with a small party and a hard hat signed by everyone, but he never said goodbye.
“I said ‘I’ll see you later,’ because I always knew I wanted to come back as a civilian,” Guyette said.
Guyette was eligible to work in the federal government because he had earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Administration while serving in the Army, but military retirees are required to wait 180 days after leaving the military before they can obtain a federal job, so he uploaded his resume to USAjobs.gov and looked for other work.
Guyette said it was challenging to find work at first because his retirement in January 2020 coincided with the beginning of the pandemic, but his Army experience and 24 years of transportation expertise helped him land a good job eventually as a contractor working with civilian carriers.
Soon after, he received an email notification that his resume was selected for a position at his old unit and his goal to work at the 597th Transportation Brigade at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, became a reality.
“I knew I had to take it,” Guyette said. “Working with my friends and family is a treat and supporting our troops around the globe gives me a sense of purpose.”
Guyette said he hopes to help decrease the workload for his team and is looking forward to rejoining his old co-workers in the office again.
He’ll start working later this month as an ordering officer on the Ocean Cargo Clearance Authorities team, after completing a short training this week with the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command headquarters to learn what’s changed in the past few months while he’s been gone at the 597th Transportation Brigade.
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