Oncor’s Andy Gray now drives a bucket truck around Dallas, but he once cruised the Atlantic and Indian oceans aboard two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.

“I’d like to say I saw a lot of the world, but the earth is 70 percent water, so I saw a lot of that,” laughed Gray, an Oncor System Service Representative Senior.

Today, Gray works in the Terrell, Mesquite and McKinney areas, climbing poles or using a bucket truck to connect service and repair problems.

He’s one of about 250 Oncor employees who are U.S. military veterans. These employees serve Oncor in a variety of positions, such as J.D. Senger, Information Security Officer, Dallas, Max Angwenyi, Account Manager Senior, Midland, and Rachel Bryen, Distribution Systems Supervisor, Fort Worth.

In addition to Bryen, Oncor’s West DOC employs eight other veterans. They are Tyler Alcala, Navy; John J. Donovan, Navy; Chris Fisher, Navy; Travis Mason, Marines; Sean Murphy, Marines; Randy Woods, Marines; and Teddy Wright, Navy.

Gray joined the Navy at age 17 right after graduating from Terrell High School in the early 1980s. One of his grandfathers, both of whom were veterans, told him to go Navy. “He said they had better chow and that I’d get a little more sleep,” Gray said.

“All the men in my family had served in the military. It was the honorable thing to serve your country and that’s what I decided to do.”

The Navy trained him in propulsion engineering, and he spent four years working on the engines of two aircraft carriers, the USS Carl Vinson and USS America.

The Navy also taught him determination, perseverance, and how to work with a different kinds of people, Gray said. “For a 17-year-old kid, you want to talk about diversity, join the military.”

Dallas Power & Light, a predecessor of Oncor, hired Gray shortly after he left the Navy. That was 34 years ago.

His military experience taught him many lessons, including how to work with a team. “That’s been important in my job,” he said. “We all have strengths and you find out there’s more than one way to get things done.”

“The thing that I take from all of it is to be thankful for the freedoms we have in this country,” Gray said. “I’ve seen some places I wouldn’t want to go back to.”

There is one place he would like to revisit,though. “Someday,” he said, “I’d like to take my grandchildren to the naval base in Norfolk, Va.”