To celebrate Veterans Day this year, EM is highlighting former service members who have joined EM on their journey in civilian work-life!
Bill Wilborn
EM Nevada Veteran Grateful for Military Experience
Bill Wilborn credits his service in the U.S. Navy with helping to prepare him for the complex work he performs in the EM Nevada Program.
Wilborn currently serves as the deputy program manager for operations at EM Nevada.
Wilborn’s current job at EM Nevada requires he help supervise program work at the Nevada National Security Site, and he holds responsibilities for the remediation of industrial sites, groundwater testing and monitoring, radioactive waste acceptance operations and coordination of Nevada Field Office activities.
“I always had an interest in the environment but did not know how much until I began college courses in geology,” Wilborn said. “This was at the same time I was working as a cooperative education student with the Department of Energy. EM’s mission was new and exciting with a great deal of unique environmental characterization work that I found to be of great interest and fun to learn. Over a few decades, we are now coming to a close on the EM Nevada work and I am proud to still be a part of it.”
Before Wilborn joined the EM Nevada effort in 1991, he was working with his fellow sailors on the critically important mission of protecting Americans.
“I was stationed in San Diego and Long Beach, California, on a Spruance Class Destroyer,” Wilborn said, adding his military service taught him the important life lesson that “it takes many cogs to perform as a functioning wheel.”
He has many cherished memories from his military service. One includes the so-called line crossing where the northern and southern hemispheres meet.
“Crossing the equator for the first time,” Wilborn said of a memory that stands out.
Beyond all the learning and experiences the Navy offered, Wilborn said he is most thankful for the friendships made.
“Good camaraderie and memories with some of my best friends who I am still in touch with today,” Wilborn said.