Page 130 - Cityview Jan-Feb 2017

FACES OF EAST TENNESSEEFirst ResponderWhether he is patrolling the ski slopes (his passion for decades) or helping out with the rescue squad, Armand Mendez is someone you can count onARMAND MENDEZ CARES ABOUT PEOPLE. Watching him pulling a toboggan down oneof the steeper slopes of Ober Gatlinburg, you recognize that this is a skilled man on a mission;he is more than willing to do whatever is necessary to assist whoever needs help. But what sets him apart even moreis his willingness to teach others to do the same. A true outdoorsman, climber, skier, spelunker, and scuba diver— you name it, he is game.Mendez grew up with an interest in athletics and health. By age 16, he was working as a volunteer ski patroller and by the time he went to college to study psychology at the University of Tennessee, he was working with special teams with the Knoxville Volunteer Rescue Squad, including water and cave rescue, vertical rescue, and vehicle extrication. He also worked for the university as an athletic trainer. But with the special training he learned in the Rescue Squad fresh under his belt, Mendez soon found himself with a unique opportunity in front of him: working with robots.He spent ve years as a eld engineer for Northrop Grumman doing robotic bomb disposal for military teams, traveling the world to do the work. “I traveled to many countries with robots where there was a high probability of me being taken hostage,” he says.But while the work was dangerous, it was there thathe recognized himself to be, as he says, “engineering inclined.” He then decided to continue his education at UT in mechanical engineering. He has worked for the last six yearsStory by Rebecca Whalen•Photography by Meagan Applegateas Corporate Quality Manager at Signal Energy implementing solar and wind energy projects for power developers and utilities. Mendez believes it’s important to engage in the exploration of the eld you are hoping to pursue a careerin. “That was something I missed out on the rst time at the University of Tennessee, but now, knowing that that could have been an opportunity, I would have known engineering was something and I could have gotten into it then,” he says.“There’s a high level of satisfaction in knowing you’re producing clean energy and helping to solve the world energy crisis,” he says. “It’s amazing that we can turn desert property or deserted farmland that is no longer producing to viable areas for power production that is also a really sizable money maker for clients.”It’s about doing the work and being willing to be up front and ask questions, he says, because that’s how you’ll know what interests you. “If you’re not seeking knowledge, you’re not growing. You have to know what you don’t know.”Whether at his day job or in the eld serving as a rst responder, Armand Mendez is in it for the people. He wants all of our lives to be better. On his Facebook page, he relates the story of an auto accident he chanced upon where, despite the best e orts of a group of volunteers under his direction, the person did not survive. He writes, “They had come togetherto help a stranger,” he writes. “They received instructionsand commands from someone they never met. They did so because they wanted to give this person a second chance.”For Mendez, life is precious and always worth another chance.128JANUARY FEBRUARY 2017