Steve Ramirez (USMC), Frank Smith (USA), Kaycee King (USMC), rafael Burgos (USAF), Neil Norris (USMC), Mike Tilden (USMC).
Yuba City, CA – For three days in August, Veterans from across Northern California gathered at the Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds for something built around a simple principle: Veterans helping Veterans.
Members of the IBEW 1245 Veterans Committee participated throughout the 2026 Yuba-Sutter Veterans Stand Down, held August 20th through 22nd, joining dozens of organizations, agencies and community partners providing employment assistance, benefits information, health and social services, and other resources to Veterans and their families.
For our Veterans Committee, the Stand Down offered an opportunity to do what has increasingly become a central part of our mission: meet Veterans where they are, provide outreach and education, introduce them to opportunities in the union trades, and connect them with people and resources that can help them build successful lives after military service.
Veterans Committee members Steve Ramirez, Kaycee King, Neil Norris, Rafael Burgos, Eva Schauffler, Frank Smith, and Mike Tilden participated during the three-day event.
Over the course of the Stand Down, the Committee spoke with hundreds of Veterans and other attendees about what it means to belong to a union and the career opportunities available through IBEW 1245 and the broader union building and utility trades.
Those conversations often started with the basics. For Veterans who may have spent their entire adult lives in the military, terms like apprenticeship, collective bargaining agreement, labor union, hiring hall, and journeyman can be unfamiliar. Committee members were able to explain how union careers work, discuss pathways into the trades, and share the Committee’s career-resource handout highlighting opportunities available to Veterans transitioning into civilian employment.
Eva Schauffler, Neil Norris, Mike Tilden and Rafael Burgos.
The conversations also gave Committee members an opportunity to explain why military experience can translate particularly well into the skilled trades. Leadership, teamwork, safety, technical proficiency, accountability and the ability to perform critical tasks under difficult conditions are qualities Veterans develop throughout their service, and qualities valued every day in the industries represented by IBEW 1245.
But employment was only one part of the event. The IBEW 1245 booth was surrounded by organizations representing the much larger network of support available to Veterans. The Committee was positioned alongside the California Employment Development Department and a Veteran-focused fly-fishing outreach organization, and across from representatives of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, CalVet and county Veterans Service Offices, with numerous other service organizations throughout the grounds.
That environment provided an important reminder that helping Veterans successfully transition into civilian life rarely involves just one organization or one solution.
The Stand Down also brought military and elected leaders together with the Veteran community. Opening ceremonies featured keynote remarks from Col. Benjamin Ward, Deputy Commander of the 940th Air Refueling Wing, Republican California Assemblymember James Gallagher, representing the 3rd Assembly District, and Democratic Congressman Mike Thompson, representing California’s 4th Congressional District.
Committee members had the opportunity to hear directly from elected officials about issues affecting Veterans and their families, including federal legislation and programs such as the PACT Act, the COMPACT Act and the GRACE for Military Survivors Act.
Those conversations are part of a broader role the Veterans Committee continues to develop, not only helping individual Veterans navigate career opportunities and available resources, but ensuring that the experiences and concerns of Veterans within IBEW 1245 and those who may one day become members are represented in the larger conversations taking place around Veterans’ employment, benefits and services.
The 25th annual Yuba-Sutter Stand Down was rooted in the principle of “Veterans Serving Veterans. Community Serving Those Who Served.” Over three days, that principle could be seen throughout the fairgrounds as government agencies, Veterans organizations, nonprofits, employers and volunteers worked side by side.
For IBEW 1245’s Veterans Committee, participation in events like the Stand Down is also about building relationships that last beyond a single weekend.
Since its establishment in 2024, the Committee has worked to expand outreach to Veterans both inside and outside the Local, develop stronger connections with Veteran-serving organizations, and create pathways that can connect transitioning service members and Veterans with family-sustaining union careers. Events like the Yuba-Sutter Veterans Stand Down provide an opportunity to strengthen those partnerships while putting resources directly into the hands of Veterans who can use them.
They also reinforce why the Committee was created in the first place.
A Veteran approaching the IBEW 1245 booth may be looking for a new career. Another may need help understanding what an apprenticeship is. Someone else may simply want to talk with another Veteran who understands the transition from military service into civilian life.
Whatever brings them to the table, the goal remains the same: Leave no Veteran behind.
IBEW 1245 Veterans Committee