To celebrate Veterans Day, EM highlights former service members who have joined EM on their journey in civilian work-life.
What is your name and what do you do at EM?
Steve Clutter – Director of External Affairs for the Office of Environmental Management
What branch did you serve in; when; where stationed?
Navy; 1976 – 1980; Air Force Reserve 1984 – 1998; Active duty Air Force 1998 – 2014; San Diego, Washington state, Portland, Oregon, Tokyo, Japan, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Rhode Island, Virginia, Texas, Afghanistan, Iraq and Qatar to name a few.
Most memorable event/moment during your service?
For the Navy, it was a Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) of Americans from Iran in 1979. My ship was tasked to transport them from Iran to Bahrain after the Shah of Iran fled and the Ayatollah Khomeini took power. For the Air Force, it was embedding with an Army Special Forces team hunting for Osama Bin Laden in remote areas where U.S. forces had not operated before. No luck finding him, but it was an interesting endeavor and we quit shaving to save water. When I returned to Kabul nearly a month later, my boss didn’t recognize me!
How has your military service helped prepare you for the job you do in EM?
Military service helped prepare me in many ways, but I think the most important was learning how to work as a team member to accomplish important goals that were only attainable by working as a team.
When did you begin working for EM and what got you interested in the cleanup mission?
I came to EM in 2020 because I was wanting to continue to do something that was important to our nation and also something that helps take care of planet Earth. Working with a team of talented people involved in the largest nuclear cleanup operation in the world has fulfilled that objective. There is a tremendous amount of esprit de corps throughout the EM complex that reminds me very much of military cultures I had been part of in the past.