Celebrating Veterans Day
Every Veterans Day, Florida Polytechnic University student Jonny Anderson can’t help but reflect on the journey that led him from serving in both the Marine Corps and Air Force Reserve to helping build rockets for space technology company Blue Origin.
With determination squarely focused on earning a mechanical engineering degree, Anderson is living a dream many students can only imagine. He currently works as a level two engineering technician on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, which is scheduled to launch for the second time on Wednesday, Nov. 12, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Florida’s east coast.
Balancing his studies with a demanding engineering role, Anderson has spent the last several months helping build the rocket’s first stage, installing, testing, and troubleshooting critical components while giving feedback to engineers.
“It’s the only job I’d commute an hour and a half for,” Anderson said of the full-time position, which often sees him working nights and weekends.
During the week, his Florida Poly studies are helping him achieve his goal of becoming a Blue Origin mechatronics engineer and working on its conceptual Orbital Reef space station.
“Enrolling at Florida Poly early this year is probably the most ambitious thing I’ve ever done,” said Anderson, whose education is being supported by the military’s G.I. Bill. “I’m 32 and still trying to figure out my life. I hope students know they don’t have to have their whole life figured out by the age of 18.”
Anderson’s pathway to engineering has been anything but traditional. Generations of his family have served in the U.S. military, including a grandfather decorated for valor in Vietnam, which made his own enlistment feel almost inevitable, he said.
After graduating high school in 2011, he earned an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) license and attended the firefighter academy, ready to get to work and save lives. Soon, Anderson shifted direction and joined the Air Force in 2013 as a reservist working for a search and rescue unit repairing HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters.
“Around 2016, I decided I really wanted to do active duty and possibly have a career in the military,” he said.
Anderson joined the U.S. Marine Corps, accepting a demotion and attending boot camp for a second time before becoming a forward observer, which is an artillery specialist who calls for and directs artillery fire on targets.
“It didn’t make a ton of sense career-wise, but I think ambition-wise it did,” he said. “I don’t regret it. I’m glad I did it.”
Through a deployment in the Pacific and serving during the COVID-19 pandemic, Anderson said he made great friends and learned priceless skills, but he also began to see a different future for himself.
With support from his wife, Mariella, Anderson chose not to reenlist at the end of his contracted term in 2021. Mariella Anderson, an industrial engineer, urged him to consider returning to school.
With Veterans Day now here, Anderson’s thoughts are drawn to the years he spent serving his country.
“Around this time I do start to become a lot more ‘moto,’ which is a military phrase for motivation and how proud you are and how much you live and breathe the military,” Anderson said. “Veterans Day is when I turn it up to 11.”
Contact:
Lydia Guzmán
Director of Communications
863-874-8557
