Veterans Day Spotlight: Arturo Guerrero helps his students take flight in their careers.

Arturo Guerrero has spent much of his life with his head in the clouds, or at least going through them. The aviator has always loved flight, so he made it his life’s work when he enlisted in the United States Air Force.?

Born in Puerto Rico Guerrero came to the United States as his dad was serving in the Air Force and it truly was a family affair. “There is a tradition of Puerto Ricans in the military, so I followed in that tradition,” Guerrero said. “My grandfather is retired military, as is my dad and my cousins and uncles.”?

Before joining the armed forces, Guerrero was studying mechanical engineering, but he soon made the transition to aviation. “I joined the U.S. Air Force and became an F16 hydraulics systems specialist, and I loved it because it was the pinnacle of technology,” Guerrero said.?

When Guerrero departed from the Air Force after eight years he continued to take to the skies. He opened his own company with his wife in which he flew advertisement banners as well as parachuters. He even had some fun with one-seater experimental planes which resulted in a couple of accidents forcing him to rely on his military training to go limp until all violent movements stop and take the proper steps to get out of the cockpit.

His next career stop was critical to helping him develop skills that would make him a better instructor. Guerrero became a road manager in the music business for a friend who said he needed a military guy to bring order and structure to the company. “I started making teams there, and honestly, I’m here (at Valencia College) because I make better teams with these students,” Guerrero said.

Before joining Valencia College Accelerated Skills Training, though, it turns out Guerrero wasn’t quite finished serving his country. He thought he was done after leaving the Air Force, but a friend started recruiting him for the U.S. Coast Guard.

“A friend told me about the Coast Guard,” Guerrero said. “I was honestly, like, you know what? I like surfing and I being in the water, I like fishing, I was born and raised by the sea, but I don’t see myself working in the water. I’m sorry.”

But the convincing continued.

“He said, ‘we’ve got helicopters,’ and I was like you know what, that’s true,” Guerrero said with a laugh. “I ended up loving it and I retired from the Coast Guard.”

Spending more the 12 years in the Coast Guard Guerrero flew search and rescue teams as a helicopter flight mechanic and trained junior aircrew and aircrew candidates to learn the duties of the flight mechanic position. On top of that he is a certified motorcycle instructor, has a bachelors in Aeronautics/Aviation/Aerospace Science and Technology from Liberty University and an MBA from Colorado Technical University so he was a tremendous fit for Valencia College.

Being certified for aerospace soldering Guerrero was initially tabbed to be an Electronic Board Assembly instructor. But, with his wealth of knowledge in many areas he eventually transitioned to instruct the Industrial Automation Technician – Mechatronics program.

“The Air Force taught me hydraulics, that’s the last part we teach here,” Guerrero said. “Plus, fluid dynamics and in the Coast Guard I was an avionics electrical technician. All those things make me a mechatronics instructor.” The Industrial Automation Technician – Mechatronics program combines pneumatics, hydraulics, electrical and mechanical elements so it is imperative that the instructor has a firm understanding of all those components.

While he never intentionally sought out to be an instructor of the program he now teaches Guerrero beams with pride over training students to be the much-needed technicians the field needs.

“This program is amazing; it creates true jacks of all trades,” Guerrero said. “These technicians come out of here with a strong foundation on electrical systems, on mechanical systems and fluid dynamics.”

“We can morph this program to feed and address the exact needs of the industry and we can grow with the industry,” Guerrero continued. He pointed out that Accelerated Skills Training works with Disney, Universal, JLL, Frito Lay, Pepsi, Gatorade and many other companies providing both the industry and the graduates significant opportunities to make the workforce stronger.

Guerrero finds he gets the most satisfaction from students who have been rejected by the world finding their way to success through this program.

“There is no other program right now that provides a kid a chance who got rejected because they did not fit what you need to be, to be an engineer. This is how you get there,” Guerrero said. “They say you’re too dumb, you don’t know math, you can’t do this, you can’t do that. And that puts that student on another path and that kid maybe becomes a space enthusiast but with the sigma that he’s not good for that.”

“Well, they do this course and get those four certifications, five including the OSHA, and now they have the capacity to actually enroll on the credit side and get up to 16 credits towards an engineer degree and become an engineer and prove to the system they are what they’re meant to be. That is what this program gives students.”