This week on Project Vanguard Podcast, I sit down with Jason Fabre, a Houston utility leader who built a Special Response Team that treats hurricanes, heat waves, and winter storms like missions.
The conversation is straight talk about reliability, not politics. If you have worn a uniform, the cadence will feel familiar.
Field lessons from Winter Storm Uri
We get an inside track on what actually failed and what changed since.
The crisis started on the generation side, not distribution.
ERCOT ordered load shed to prevent a black start, which forced utilities to de-energize large blocks.
The shed was so big that rotation broke down in places.
Post-Uri fixes are practical: intelligent switching, automation, and better protection of critical circuits so hospitals and public safety stay up and rotations are fairer when the worst hits.
Why this matters: Energy security is national security. This is incident command, logistics, and communication under pressure.
Inside Jason’s Special Response Team
So what does the team actually do?
Day-to-day crews keep the system healthy.
The SRT plans for the abnormal: hurricanes, derechos, urban marathons, multi-day heat events.
During events, the SRT owns staging, materials, and execution so the business never has to “change hats.”
Translation: One team keeps tempo. One team takes the hit.
Tech that moves the needle
Drones for eyes on flooded or inaccessible areas. Faster assessment, safer crews, faster repairs.
Stronger standards in high-wind corridors, with non-wood alternatives that fail less and recover faster.
Self-healing distribution with remote switching. Find the fault, isolate it, reroute power, then narrow the outage footprint.
This is reliability work that saves hours when hours matter.
Why veterans fit utilities
Clear roles and comms, long days, real consequences.
Safety culture with checklists and after-action learning.
Field leadership that blends tempo with care for people.
Service mindset. The customer is a community.
If you thrived as an NCO, crew lead, or section chief, you will thrive here.
Your on-ramp this week (veterans)
Pick a lane: lineman apprentice, substation tech, SCADA, dispatch, damage assessment, project management, emergency management.
Translate your MOS: incident command, convoy or logistics coordination, safety, after-action reports. Use STAR stories with numbers and dates.
Network with intent: find veteran ERGs and Veterans in Energy, message two people for ten minutes on how they got hired.
Prepare to talk resilience: triage under pressure, protect critical load, communicate with the public, support rotation plans.
Show you learn fast: ask about outage management systems, switching protocols, and storm rosters. Bring a notebook.
Final Thoughts
The internet argues about ideology. The lights do not care.
Veterans know the difference.
If you want work that matters, this is it.
If this helped, forward it to one veteran who would crush in utilities.
If you hire, hit reply and tell us where veterans should apply this month.
