Ohio VFW recognizes AEP as Veterans Employer of the Year
AEP employees who are military veterans recently accepted the Ohio VFW’s Veterans Employer of the Year Award on behalf of American Electric Power. Shown above (left to right) are: Russell Shupert of AEP; Keith Jeffers, Department of Ohio VFW Judge Advocate; Rich Gill of AEP; Paul Hilde of AEP; Sam Compton, Department of Ohio VFW Commander; Joshua Sebourn of AEP, and Terry Isham of AEP.
Several AEP employees who are military veterans attended an Ohio Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) recognition luncheon in Cleveland, where AEP was awarded the Veterans Employer of the Year in Ohio in the Large Employer Category. The award honors AEP for having an exceptional record of hiring and promoting veterans.
AEP attendees who accepted the award on behalf of the company were Joshua Sebourn, IT manager, Network & gridSMART Command Center; Paul Hilde, CMS SCADA analyst senior; Rich Gill, senior environmental specialist – nuclear; Terry Isham, IT Help Desk supervisor; and Russell Shupert, IT system administrator I.
Those who accepted the award all served honorably in a wide range of military service:
* Sebourn served from October 1995 to January 2000 as a telecommunications specialist E4 in the U.S. Army, serving two tours of duty in Bosnia.
* Hilde served from 1978 to 1988 as a first class nuclear reactor plant operator in the U.S. Navy aboard the ballistic missile submarine USS Von Steuben.
* Gill served from 1972 to 1979 in the U.S. Navy in naval aviation; he served aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Forrestal, at NAS Miramar (now MCAS Miramar), and with Airborne Early Warning Squadron VAW-111. He was an aviation electronics technician first class and naval electronics instructor.
* Isham served in the U.S. Air Force from 1972 to 1976 with the rank of airman E4, at Kelly Air Force Base (base now decommissioned) in San Antonio, Texas.
* Shupert served in the U.S. Air Force from 1992 to 1996 and in the Alaska Air National Guard from 1996 to 2000 at Eielson Air Force Base, as a staff sergeant E5 in supply logistics and computer operations support.
AEP was nominated in the name of 35 posts in and around central Ohio, including as far south as Logan and Circleville and north to Delaware. District 11 Commander of the Department of Ohio VFW, George Dountz, nominated AEP for the award.
In addition to veterans in attendance at the Nov. 18 event, there were also representatives from government and business involved in the employment of veterans.
Earlier this year, G.I. Jobs magazine named AEP one of the nation’s top 100 “military-friendly” employers for the eighth consecutive year. AEP is one of only five companies that have received the honor each year since its initiation in 2003.
AEP Retirees & Alumni 