The way Roberto Rivera sees it, his career at the U.S. Army Environmental Command has not only allowed him to stay close to his hometown of San Antonio to be near family, but also to see places around the world.
He credits that to the early start he got on his career from an internship program for promising high school students, and a connection that has provided him with multiple opportunities and increased leadership responsibility.
“I started as a high school student as a GS 1, and now I’m a GS 14,” he said. “I started working for the Army as a trainee back when I graduated from high school. At Fox Tech, the senior counselors gave us a briefing on all the different opportunities, and one of them was with the Army. No strings attached, you didn’t have to join the Army, and I ended up becoming a civilian employee.”
After high school, Rivera continued his connection to the Army, while growing in his knowledge and skills and earning a civil engineering degree.
“While I was going to school at the University of Texas in San Antonio, I was working during summers and holiday breaks. I’d come and work at the Directorate of Public Works at Fort Sam Houston. I actually worked in the engineering department,” he said. “When I graduated from college, the Army offered me two different internships, one was with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Fort Worth, the other was in the environmental division at Fort Sam Houston. I decided to stay close to home.”
That decision to follow a career in environmental management also led him to work around the globe.
“I did a stint in Germany for three years, at the garrison in Kaiserslautern, Germany,” he said. “Germany has a lot of strict environmental laws. So, we had to not only follow U.S. laws and Army regulations, but local German laws as well,” he said, adding he loved the experience of living in another country. “It was really fun. I made some long-term friends and had some great experiences. We got to do program reviews, and that took me all around the country. I got to see a lot of places.”
When he returned to the U.S., he came back to San Antonio, this time working with the U.S. Air Force at Lackland Air Force Base – where he drew some conclusions about the different environmental programs between the two services.
“Working for the Army, it seems to me like the camaraderie among the different garrisons is a lot better, more of a team,” he said. “The Air Force has a well-regarded program, and a lot of funding. But in my opinion, the Army manages things better and does more with less.”
One assignment Rivera cherished was for duty in Iraq, managing environmental issues in a combat zone.
“My time in Iraq was a unique experience. I was at Baghdad International Airport working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, during Operation New Dawn,” he said “We did environmental cleanup. I basically was the environmental manager. Dealing with burn pits was a really huge issue for us. Most of the time, our guys were doing hands-on cleanup. We didn’t really get too near combat, but the bad guys were constantly shelling our location.”
Following his time in Iraq, Rivera came back to San Antonio, and is now a Supervisory Environmental Support Manager for USAEC, a role he began in May of 2024 after spending 11 years in an environmental engineering role with the organization.
He reminisces about the work he did as an engineer working with the neighbors around Camp Bullis, a training site not far from Fort Sam Houston. The lighting at the site was drawing complaints from nearby residents, and working with the Army leaders and the neighbors, he helped install a lighting solution that met the training needs and had far less impact on the surrounding areas.
“That was a good solution. It allowed the training to continue and not be impacted but also listened to the concerns of the neighbors and addressed them,” he said. “That’s been a few years back, but it seems to be working because I don’t hear about any complaints.”
Through his church, Rivera has made presentations to local students about his career path, and gives advice on how to pursue a Science, Technology, Engineering, and/or Math (STEM) career.
“I tell them it is very rewarding, and you get to work on things that are constantly changing in the environment, so it never gets boring,” he said.
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