Military transition is a challenge, but you don’t have to go it alone! Once a week, I chat with veterans who have successfully transitioned from military service to civilian life to find out their biggest transition challenge and their top tips for how you can improve your military transition.
Meet Today’s Guest: Lorraine Diaz Moldonado
The interview you are about to read today is a testament to the power of LinkedIn.
Navy veteran Lorraine Diaz Moldonado and I have never met.
We connected on LinkedIn based on our veteran status, but it didn’t take long for Lorraine herself to catch my attention.
Lorraine doesn’t just request connections on LinkedIn and then go dormant; she engages. She liked and commented on my posts, drawing my attention to her profile, where I began to notice that she talked often about military transition. Which, you may have noticed, is a topic that I also talk about a lot!
Lorraine also talks about being an aircraft mechanic, both in and out of the military. Her desire to pass on both her military transition lessons learned, as well as knowledge needed to enter the civilian aircraft mechanic field, drew me in. As did her hashtag: #thepintsizedmechanic.
Soon, I invited Lorraine to do a Front & Center interview and we set up a phone call to get to know each other a bit first. As often happens with vets, within seconds we were laughing and joking, like we’d known each other forever.
If you get a chance to talk to Lorraine, do! Until then, here’s a little taste of what you can expect from this feisty, focused Navy veteran.
You’re a Navy veteran. Tell me a little about your military service – what made you decide to join, how long did you serve, highlights, etc.
Lorraine: I grew up watching my dad be able to fix or build anything with a giant mustached smile on his face. For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be just like him. His personality and mechanical aptitude dazzled me, but he had natural talents—mechanics and mustaches—that I did not.
My father was also a Marine. He got his citizenship through his military service, and I’ve always really admired that about him, too.
Aside from having that strong inspiration at home, the final push was wanting to take a year off between graduating high school and starting college. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I was burnt out from AP courses and an Electrical Engineering program I was enrolled in during high school.
When I approached my mom about it she said, “No, you’ll never go back.” She was adamant—I would be going to college; it didn’t matter what for.
But, as hard-headed as I am, that didn’t sit well with me, so I ended up talking to the Navy recruiters at my school and enlisted as an Aircraft Mechanic or Aviation Machinists’ Mate (AD).
As for a few specific highlights, I’d say getting awarded an achievement medal at the end of my second deployment was huge, because I didn’t know anyone was even watching me. I just busted my ass to keep planes up and missions going.
In 2014, I was one of two representatives from my entire work center to be selected to support our aircraft in Jordan for Operation Eager Lion 2014, a multinational exercise, which was also awesome. During that exercise, the UAE had a historic first with a female pilot flying!
In 2015, I got selected for orders to be a part of the (now decommissioned) VFA-101 Grim Reapers, the Navy’s first F-35 squadron. We did testing and integration, which was a completely different type of experience, and helped prove the capabilities of an aircraft. Most of the Navy’s airplanes had already been fielded, so me getting selected to work on a newly developed one was very special to me.
Six and a half years after I started my Navy career, I voluntarily separated and became a civilian again. When I look back at all the cool things I got to do, I know I would make the same decision again.
Getting to trouble-shoot airplanes so they can shoot off the flight deck of the USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77) for air support missions and offensive strikes was exhilarating. I always enjoyed going out to different places in the U.S. to test our weapons capabilities and keep our pilots ready for the next fight.
You left the Navy in 2017. What made you decide to leave the service and how was your military-to-civilian transition process?
Lorraine: I came back home on leave for Thanksgiving 2016. In the months leading up to me coming home, my mom had been complaining about the constant feeling of sickness. When I came home, it was the first time I had seen my mom in months and she looked extremely ill. Her skin was this unnaturally pale white and she was always fatigued. It scared me.
When I came back from leave, I went straight to my command and told them I was getting out. I just couldn’t have signed up for more time in the Navy and given away whatever time I might have had left with her.
Luckily, shortly after that, we figured out what was going on—my mom was diagnosed with diabetes. Once she started taking insulin, she bounced back.
As for the transition, it was stressful. The hard part was when I was about a month out from separating. I didn’t have a good plan. I didn’t have a job. And I was tired of working in aviation. I wanted to make a career change. I wasn’t married and didn’t have kids so I took it as an opportunity to figure out what I wanted next.
I ended up working a temp job at a warehouse. It wasn’t great—low pay and no benefits. After a while, I realized I missed airplanes. It’s kind of like when you’re a butcher all your life and you get tired of it, so you become a baker. You end up finding out you’re an awful baker and it isn’t what you thought. More than that, you miss being a butcher. So, you go back to your real love. That’s what happened to me.
What was the one thing you found most difficult about your military transition?
Lorraine: Communication.
The way we speak and the jargon we use in the military is totally different than in the civilian world.
When they (interviewers, co-workers, people at networking events, etc.) talk about needing a Project Manager, for example, you hear tasks that you’ve done before so you try to convey that, but it rarely comes out right the first time.
It goes both ways with the communication breakdown, too. We tend to forget they don’t have military experience to help them decipher what we’re saying.
The more people who know your intent and goals, the more people that can potentially help you reach that next step.
Lorraine Diaz Moldonado
What was one thing you found helpful during your military transition?
Lorraine: Speaking my intent into reality; really talking to people and telling them about what I was trying to do.
The more people who know your intent and goals, the more people that can potentially help you reach that next step.
This has been called a lot of things like a network, a support system, friends, family, etc. No matter the name, the desired result is the same.
And you’d be surprised, but it works. That’s how I was able to get an interview with you!
You are now an Airframe and Powerplants Mechanic, which is also what you did while you were in the Navy. Could you talk a little about the transition from a military A&P Mechanic to a civilian A&P Mechanic? How is working in this field in the civilian world different than the Navy and were there any hurdles you ran into during this transition?
Lorraine: Oh my gosh, I could write for days about this! As a civilian working outside of military aviation, we fall under the jurisdiction of the FAA. The FAA requires all A&P mechanics to be certified by them in order to legally sign off work performed and for airplanes to be restored. Like doctors, aircraft mechanics operate under a special scope of practice.
In the Navy, mechanics are divided up into different work types or specialties, with each shop or work center doing their part of a job. So, I worked on aircraft, but my specialty was engines and fuel systems maintenance.
As a licensed civilian A&P, you are now all shops in one. I have to be qualified to work on everything, so my learning curve included structural work and avionics systems.
One giant hurdle is, even after you get your license, employers want you to have experience on their airframes. Even with my Navy experience, they didn’t want to hire me, since I didn’t have three, five, or ten years working on those types of aircraft. I had to prove that I wasn’t useless just because I hadn’t worked in civil aviation.
This is a huge problem tons of military aviation veterans have. We consistently get sidelined for other candidates because our experience is basically worthless, even with a license.
There are other differences, too. One thing that still drives me crazy is how different FOD (Foreign Object Damage) and tool control are handled in civil versus military aviation. Military Aviation tool control is treated extremely seriously, because the consequences can be deadly. Leaving a tool in an aircraft can cause it to crash and possibly kill the passengers and people around the crash site. Missing tools raise all kinds of alarm bells and we throw all our manpower into locating a tool, to include shutting down all flight operations until it is found. I’ve had to pull apart an entire engine before because we could not account for a missing socket! For the most part, in civil aviation, the reaction is nowhere near this level.
Access to healthcare and treatment costs, including time you won’t be able to work, weren’t things I had to think about on active duty, but they are a huge consideration when planning my future.
Lorraine Diaz Moldonado
What’s one thing you miss about the military?
Lorraine: For me, it’s an even split between two things.
One is the people I got to work with while I served.
Helping others get qualified, guide them, mentor junior sailors, and be a fellow human to the people around me was lovely.
Two is definitely emergency care.
I know that sounds kind of messed up, but healthcare is very expensive. Access to healthcare and treatment costs, including time you won’t be able to work, weren’t things I had to think about on active duty, but they are a huge consideration when planning my future.
What’s one thing you like better about being a civilian?
Lorraine: Besides not standing watch or duty weekends?
The absolute freedom to be myself! The first thing I did was get a totally out-of-regulations haircut!
What’s your top tip for service members who are transitioning or considering leaving the military?
Lorraine: Approach each day from a student mentality. If you do, you will continue learning throughout your lifetime.
The first assignment is learning some things about yourself. Knowing what’s important to you, like what would make you feel happiest at the end of the day, and what you don’t want in your life is critical.
Lorraine Diaz Maldonado is an A&P Mechanic who writes articles and LinkedIn content to help service members achieve tangible results during and after their transition into civil aviation. She started her journey with service and airplanes back in 2011, when she joined the Navy as an aircraft mechanic. She continued that bright passion after separating from the military in 2017, completing her A&P licensing in 2019. Currently, she is a member of multiple professional aviation associations including Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance (AWAM), Women in Aviation International (WAI), and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA). Lorraine also serves as a Board Member for the NBAA Workforce Development Advisory Board. She resides in “The City Beautiful,” Orlando, FL. She enjoys reading, connecting with fellow members of the aviation industry, and playing a rousing game of chess. Lorraine envisions a future where more women storm the last frontier; the production floor of every hangar in America.
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