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)
* Steelhead Americas (Website)
* Vestas Wind Turbine Manufacturing in Brighton and Windsor, Colorado (Website)
* 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)
Related Project Vanguard Episodes
* Landowners Have More Power Than They Use, with Jeff Risley (Episode)
* Building Trust, Building Power, with Landon Redmon (Episode)
* Reality Always Collects the Bill, with John Broschak (Episode)
