I sat down with Megan Glancey. She spent about ten years in the Navy, most of it flying in Growlers, which are the electronic attack jets, and she develops utility-scale wind projects for Steelhead now. On her way out in 2022 she cut her own footage into one video and posted it with no plan attached, and it went everywhere, so she ended up with an audience she never went looking for.
What she does with that audience is why I wanted her on. She spends a good part of it telling other veterans to quit running down their own service. I hear it too, usually from somebody who served while apologizing that they never deployed. Megan gets her version from the women she flew with, and one of them told her at a wedding recently, well, we weren’t boots on the ground. Her answer does not change. You’ve done far more than most of your neighbors have.
We also got into how she ended up at the Naval Academy, the last tour doing signals work at NSA, and the graduate thesis on energy and national security she wrote years before she ever heard of us or joined our first fellowship cohort.
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
01:36 – Wind development and the landowner conversation
06:02 – The video that went viral
08:17 – Using your service to open doors
10:23 – The Atlantic Council years
12:19 – Her graduate research on energy and national security
14:44 – From Annapolis to flying Growlers
19:54 – Grounded, and the move to cryptologic warfare
23:59 – Why veterans run down their own service
30:08 – Advice for veterans trying to get into energy
32:56 – How to plug into Project Vanguard
34:49 – Closing thoughts
Resources
People & Organizations
Kevin Doffing (LinkedIn)
Project Vanguard (Website - Newsletter - Podcast - LinkedIn - YouTube)
Megan Glancey (LinkedIn)
Atlantic Council Energy and Defense Program (Website)
Converge Strategies (Website)
Veteran & Transition Resources
Project Vanguard Fellowship and Community Leaders (Website)
Join Project Vanguard and the Slack Community (Website)
Project Vanguard Speakers Bureau (Website)
Project Vanguard Events (Website)
Veterans Advanced Energy Project (Website)
Veterans Advanced Energy Fellowship (Website)
Company & Industry News
Vestas Wins Order for 270 MW Project Developed by Steelhead Americas (North American Clean Energy)
Colorado Wind Turbine Company Vestas Hiring 400 New Employees in Expansion (Denver7)
From the Frontlines to the Grid: Veterans Powering America’s Clean Energy Future (Hire Heroes USA)
Policy & Programs
Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Current Laws and Legislation in the 119th Congress (Congress.gov)
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge (Department of Energy)
