Project Patriot Pipeline Crafting Avenues of Service for Skilled Workers

Earlier this year, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth initiated the "arsenal of freedom," an effort designed to revitalize America's industrial base and to build out a military capable of both defeating enemies in combat and deterring future conflicts.

The arsenal of freedom includes presidential and War Department priorities like the Golden Dome, shipbuilding, next-generation aircraft and munitions.

Hegseth visited defense contractors around the country to talk about his vision to rebuild America's military strength, and to discuss how the War Department can make it easier for companies to participate by reducing bureaucratic barriers and by providing a stronger and more dependable demand signal for what the department needs.

Anthony J. Tata, the undersecretary of war for personnel and readiness, traveled alongside Hegseth on several of those trips, where they met with defense industry executives and with production workers - those who lay hands on the airplanes, missiles, boats and submarines.

Hegseth and Tata asked the production workers about how they were acquiring personnel to handle the additional workload.

Word back from workers and managers, Tata noted, was that it was a challenge to find people. There was a shortage of engineers, managers and the hands-on technicians and workers who turn wrenches, weld, wire up electrical systems, install pipes and do other kinds of manufacturing work.

"It occurred to the secretary and I that we needed to strengthen our talent management system to further support the scaling and expansion of the arsenal of freedom," Tata said. "Without the right people in the right roles, these companies would not be able to produce."

But the War Department itself needed people - uniformed service members in high-demand, low-density career fields such as Patriot missileer, cybersecurity or aviation maintenance; and skilled civilians in the organic industrial base, where the federal civilian workforce is responsible for maintaining or rebuilding boats, aircraft and helicopters, among other vital tasks.

The department's Project Patriot Pipeline is an initiative designed to provide a flow of skilled workers to meet the department's needs, while simultaneously supporting the defense industrial base.

"To support the War Department - and to enhance the workforce that provides the tools the department needs - the undersecretary of war for personnel and readiness is developing a plan, the Project Patriot Pipeline, that will connect service members, military spouses, federal civilians and young people to mission-critical jobs and career development opportunities," Hegseth said in a video posted to social media June 3.

The plan, Hegseth said, will establish new strategic partnerships focused on the skilled trades and strengthen training and education in critical skills as a way to ensure they remain aligned to America's national security needs.

"It will strengthen national security by shaping a highly skilled workforce prepared to meet the challenges facing our nation," he said.

According to Tata, the pipeline will work across four different groups of individuals. The first are military personnel, including active duty, National Guard and reserve; the second are department civilians; the third are the civilian spouses of military personnel; and the fourth are civilian individuals who wanted to join the military but were disqualified.

That last group of individuals, Tata said, have the propensity to serve the nation and can still deliver on that by serving as a civilian.

Getting the Best Service Members to the Right Jobs

The military invests a lot of money in developing service members, Tata said. He estimates that by the time a service member has completed three years of service, the department has already spent up to several hundred thousand dollars on their professional development. It's an investment the department does not want to lose.

"We want that person to stay in the military," Tata said. "However, if they're on the bubble and they're looking at different options, we want them to understand the range of options available to them in the defense industrial base and incentivize them - for example - more tuition assistance if they go into [career fields] like Patriot missileer, cybersecurity or aviation maintenance."

Part of the project, Tata said, involves applying tools that the military already uses, like bonuses and other financial incentives, to encourage service members to choose a military job in a high-demand, low-density field.

But some members wanting to leave active duty still want a way to serve. The department is committed to offering them assistance as they move into a post-military civilian career that benefits the nation, either in the private sector or as a civilian in the military's own organic industrial base, Tata said.

"If they're leaning toward getting out, that tuition assistance then parlays into something where they're going to learn more about a specific area, like computer science," he said. "If they want to go into the [National Security Agency] up at Fort Meade, [Maryland], or if it's somebody who wants to be an aviation maintainer [with a private sector defense contractor], we can give them more time in SkillBridge to go do that."

As part of the pipeline, Hegseth signed a memorandum June 3 that ensured approval of SkillBridge applications for service members to work within the defense industrial base.

Supporting Federal Civilians

Inside U.S. shipyards and organic industrial base depots and arsenals, Tata said, are federal employees.

Part of Project Patriot Pipeline is making sure those employees are getting the training and opportunities they need to move into jobs - especially if such a move would put them in a position where they could better advance the arsenal of freedom.

"If there's an employee who is interested in changing from shipyard to aviation, or aviation to shipyard or from some other federal civilian job, we offer the same types of incentives as we do in the military to get them into those jobs," Tata said.

Efforts are also underway to make the federal civilian workforce, especially in critical skill areas, more attractive to recent college graduates.

Engaging Young People

A lot of young Americans hope to join the military, Tata said, but not every one of them will be able to. Some will be disqualified and turned away from a life in uniform. That doesn't mean those young Americans can't find a way to serve.

Their commitment to the country still has value, Tata said, and another part of the project pipeline is helping them find a way to put that commitment to work for the nation.

There are many federal jobs where they could still serve. Last month while in Dallas, Tata participated in an enlistment ceremony for 20 new service members. In the back of his mind, he said he knew that for those 20 being enlisted, there were perhaps as many as 10 others who had wanted to enlist but didn't make the cut.

They might have been interested in riveting or pipe fitting or wrench turning on aviation assets but weren't aware of the opportunities, he said.

Marketing research, Tata said, shows that while many Americans are familiar with military service, very few are aware of the civilian workforce.

"When was the last time you saw an advertisement on TV for a federal job in Norfolk, [Virginia], fitting pipes on a shipbuilding platform? Probably never," Tata said.

Right now, work to advance this effort is ongoing in areas where there are federal industrial facilities located near military entrance processing stations. As an example, the department is working with the shipyard in Puget Sound, Washington, on the Puget Sound Shipyard Partnership program.

As part of that program, some young Americans could learn skills that would allow them to replace the aging workforce at that location. Similar efforts are underway in San Antonio and in Maine.

These efforts are expected to grow regionally and in locations where there is a concentration of federal civilian jobs or other work that serves the nation, said a defense official, and that is aligned to certain defense industries.

The goal, the official said, is to have multiple pipelines that serve both the defense industrial base and the organic industrial base.

Connecting Military Spouses With Meaningful Work

Civilian spouses of military service members are half of a team that keeps families operating successfully - and a successful, happy family is one reason service members stay in uniform.

For a long time now, dual-income families have been the norm across the U.S. However, achieving this standard in military families is challenging, because permanent change of station moves by military personnel mean civilian spouses are often unable to find and keep jobs. Around 20% of military spouses, Tata said, are not employed - the national unemployment rate is roughly 4.3%.

"We wanted to wrap spouses into Project Patriot Pipeline because our military spouses are so talented in so many different ways," he said.

According to Tata, a central feature of the pipeline will be getting spouses into the workforce in meaningful jobs - especially jobs that help the War Department.

A big part of that will be an updated new SpouseWorks program, which Tata said is like SkillBridge, but for the spouses of military members. That program includes coaching, licensing assistance and tuition assistance.

On Capitol Hill last month, Tata told lawmakers that putting military spouses to work might mean getting them employment inside the War Department's industrial base. He also told lawmakers that he included things like the department's educational and medical communities as part of a broader "industrial base" that might be filled with military spouses.

"We can leverage this amazing spouse network that we have in our defense industrial base," he said, because military spouses are also dedicated to supporting national defense.

Tata is himself a former Army general officer and saw firsthand the dedication and work done by the spouses of service members.

"I saw ... extremely dedicated spouses doing a lot of work for free," he said. "Why not take that talent, leverage it toward the defense industrial base and get them paid - and increase the financial security of our military families?"

In his June 3 memo, Hegseth directed Tata to develop a full implementation plan for Project Patriot Pipeline. A key objective of the plan is connecting service members, military spouses, federal civilians and young Americans inclined to serve to mission-critical jobs, education and career development opportunities.

The secretary also directed Tata to find new policies that might incentivize service members, military spouses and civilian employees to specialize in critical skills within and outside of the department as a way to meet the nation's needs.

"The DOW Project Patriot Pipeline will strengthen national security by shaping a highly skilled workforce prepared to meet the evolving challenges facing our nation," Hegseth said. "By strategically aligning our civilian and military workforce development efforts, the department will provide warfighters, military spouses and civilian experts needed to support our mission and priorities, both in uniform and beyond. This strategic investment in our people lays the foundation for a more secure and prosperous future for our nation."

For more information visit https://www.mypatriotcareer.mil/.