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When Jesse Delapena finished his 20-year military career, many of the skills he developed as a Navy diver translated into his new role as a service technician at EquipmentShare. He’s still dealing with pieces of heavy equipment, diagnosing problems and figuring out how to fix them.
The biggest difference? Dropped hardware is way easier to find now.
“When you’re underwater turning wrenches, if you take something off, it can go to the bottom,” said Delapena, a shop tech at the branch in Pasco, Washington. “You can lose bolts and screws, multi-thousand-dollar grates — stuff is very expensive when you drop it in the water.”
Working with his hands, in a variety of settings, has been a lifelong pursuit for Delapena. His mom tells the story of him as a 2-year-old locking himself in the family truck and using a screwdriver to explore how the horn worked. On the family farm, he tagged along with his dad as he worked on machinery, mended fences and cared for livestock. Beginning at age 12, Delapena spent his summers working construction, doing manual labor with hand tools.
“I loved being able to look back when you completed something and say, ‘That’s awesome. We just did that,’” Delapena said.
Doing hard things applied to his leisure time, as well. Delapena chose one of the most taxing sports — wrestling — and excelled at it, twice earning medals at the Washington high school state tournament. He went on to wrestle in college, but when his school dropped its wrestling program, he decided to make good on his personal belief that everyone should serve their country. He joined the Navy.
He thought it would be a four-year stint. But while stationed in Japan serving on the USS Safeguard, a rescue and salvage ship, Delapena took an interest in the deep sea divers who seemed to be having all the fun. He applied to dive school, got accepted and was chosen as the class Honor Graduate.
“The school itself is long, and they test you every single day, all day,” Delapena said. “To me, it was fun because I love that challenge. Growing up on the farm and through sports, I always loved being challenged.”
He particularly enjoyed underwater ship husbandry — fixing what was broken on surface ships and submarines — and wound up staying in the Navy for 20 years. He also stayed connected with his favorite sport, joining forces with his older brother, Alejandro, to coach the CNIC All-Navy wrestling team that competed with the other branches and wrestled internationally.
When Delapena decided to rejoin the civilian world, he took advantage of the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge program. SkillBridge works with partners like EquipmentShare to provide internships to military members in the last six months of their service. Delapena wanted to get back to his hometown and work with his hands in the construction field. He also wanted a job with some flexibility in the hours so he could help coach his son’s high school wrestling team.
He found all of that at EquipmentShare. After his internship, he accepted a full-time position.
“I really like the atmosphere here,” Delapena said. “I’ve had several other opportunities, but the two main guys I work for, Javier (Elizondo) the GM and Julio (Ochoa) the service manager, are amazing people, really good to work with. They’re down to earth, to the point and they look out for their people.”
The diving expertise Delapena gained in the Navy might not apply to fixing construction equipment in eastern Washington, but the discipline and problem-solving skills he developed have helped him thrive at EquipmentShare.
“The way you’re working is way different, but the process is the same,” Delapena said. “You have something wrong, you figure out what it is and how to fix it. And then on the backside, how can we prevent this from happening again?”
