Keep the Drive Alive

**AIRSTREAMS RENEWABLES, INC.** [www.air-streams.com] (http://www.air-streams.com) Airstreams Renewables, Inc., is a nationally accredited training institute for people who are interested in the wind, oil, natural gas, and communication tower industries – and who like a challenge. The institute reports a career placement rate consistently above 70 percent. Airstreams has 40 employees, 34 percent of them from the military. Most of the veteran employees are regional recruiters or instructors, and most of the students are veterans. The main campus is in Tehachapi, California, between Bakersfield and Edwards Air Force Base. ###A STUDENT SUCCESS | BARRY BITSUI Barry Bitsui spent eight years as a field wireman in the United States Marine Corps. Barry heard about Airstreams at the veterans office in Chinle, a community in northeastern Arizona. At first, he was skeptical about the program. He had a wife and six children to support and had previous dead-end jobs and a failed trade school experience. Nevertheless, he enrolled – and succeeded. Bitsui feels that the blend of lectures and hands-on instruction at Airstreams moved his training along more rapidly than would have been the case at a two-year community college. He graduated from Airstreams in November 2014, and now works as a quality assurance auditor at Flotek Solutions, a telecommunications company in St. Augustine, Florida. “I now live by this code of honor that I have developed through trial and tribulations,” he said. “Keep the drive alive to your destination of hopes and dreams. Never doubt that you can make it.” ###A STUDENT SUCCESS | STEVE SUMMERS Steve Summers spent 12 years as a communications specialist in the United States Army. He first heard of Airstreams at a job fair at Fort Campbell. There, he met Grant Johnston, vice president of business development at Airstreams. He recalls having serious doubts about attending Airstreams, thinking it was too good to be true. But he loved every moment of school and greatly values all the safety procedures that were taught. Any questions he had were answered promptly and in detail. Summers graduated from Airstreams in February 2014. Summers is currently working as a telecommunication tower technician at Jacobs, Inc. He constantly brags about the safety training he received at Airstreams. “I use the knowledge I learned at Airstreams every day,” he said. “Check your equipment. Safety is huge. Listen to what the instructors teach. If it wasn’t for Airstreams, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”