Sixteen active-duty and retiring service members took a symbolic step into their next mission last week — removing their military uniforms and donning business suits — as Operation New Uniform (ONU) celebrated the graduation of its 70th training class.
Held Oct. 31 at the Guidewell Conference Center on the Florida Blue campus, the ceremony drew hundreds of community leaders, veterans, family members and ONU alumni to honor the newest graduates of the Jacksonville-based nonprofit’s training program.
“I look around this room, and I am totally amazed,” said ONU CEO and Co-Founder Michele McManamon. “I heard many people say, ‘Oh, my gosh, look how we’ve grown.’”
From service to success
Founded in 2014, Operation New Uniform was born from a desire to help veterans and their spouses successfully transition from military service to civilian life. Through free, in-person and virtual training as well as one-on-one coaching, ONU equips its participants to translate their military discipline, leadership and experience into valuable assets for the business world.
“The military does not do a good job of preparing our young men and women to make that transition, to make that jump,” said former Florida Congressman and ONU Honorary Board Member Lt. Col. Allen West, who served as guest speaker. “What Michele has built here is incredible.”
Chris Howard, executive vice president of Swisher — which sponsored both the training and graduation ceremony — echoed that sentiment, noting his own company’s success in hiring ONU graduates.
“We’ve seen firsthand the impact veterans have in the corporate world,” Howard told the graduates. “You make every organization you join stronger.”
Continuing the mission
West likened the graduates’ journey to that of America’s earliest heroes: the citizen-soldiers who faced the British at Lexington and Concord 250 years ago.
“They were farmers, some were lawyers, some were doctors,” West said. “And after that war was over, guess what they did? They went right back, and they created this great economy, this great nation, this great thing that we enjoy today.
“Now is your time to step up and go back into this community … and continue your mission to serve, to support, to protect, to preserve that which keeps this country going,” West continued. “You are the best this country has to offer. Go out there and be the best.”
Finding new purpose
For many graduates, the ONU experience marked a profound turning point — not just a career transition, but a rediscovery of identity and purpose.
“Before I arrived at ONU, I was wrestling with self-doubt, uncertain of my path and struggling to stay motivated,” said Army National Guard veteran Cherrie Retamozzo. “But ONU changed that. They equipped me with the tools I needed. Thanks to ONU, I now feel ready, inspired and determined to launch my next chapter: opening my own ice cream store.”
Twenty-eight-year Navy veteran Shane Edwards shared similar gratitude.
“The work that ONU is doing is unmatched by any leadership course that I’ve attended in my entire career,” he said. “They’ve helped us understand that undoubtedly there’s change coming, but we can endure it.”
Virtually all the graduates noted that Operation New Uniform’s training program helped them learn to separate their identity from their role in the military. Avagayle Williams noted that after 25 years in the Navy, she thought she “pretty much had life figured out.”
“I had a title and a mission and a uniform that told the world exactly who I was,” Williams said. “But as retirement got closer, all of a sudden, I had an identity crisis. I had to redefine who I was without the uniform, the ribbons or the title. I felt like a fraud.”
Through ONU’s training, she said, that uncertainty gave way to clarity and pride.
“Thank you, ONU, for reminding me that transforming isn’t losing who you are,” Williams said. “It’s discovering who you’ve always been.”
Call-out box
Members of Operation New U Class 70 included: Randall Adams, Aaron Anderson, Shane Edwards, Erik Gonzalez, Jorge Iturralde, Adam Jackson, Ryan Lederer, Fred Ohayon, Cherrie Retamozzo, Joan Sierra, Alejandra Avila Salas, Willie Tanner, Angelo Warnock, Avagayle Williams, Sheldon Williams and Yimnai Zhao.
