Every Veterans Day, Americans thank those who served. I appreciate the gesture. But for many veterans, the question that matters most comes the other 364 days of the year: What comes next?
I spent six years in the U.S. Army, including a deployment to Afghanistan. When I took off the uniform, my path forward wasn't obvious. I found my way into energy development, and I've now spent more than a decade in title, energy and infrastructure. Today, much of that work involves data centers in communities across the country.
What I've learned is that the skills the military teaches like planning complex operations, managing logistics, keeping critical systems running, working as a team when the stakes are high, are exactly the skills this industry needs.
The public conversation about data centers tends to focus on the permanent jobs inside the facility. Those jobs matter, but they are only part of the picture. Before the first server comes online, these projects need engineers, electricians, construction workers, surveyors, attorneys, contractors, utility crews, equipment suppliers and real estate professionals. Once built, they need people to run power systems, maintain equipment, secure the site and keep operations online around the clock.
That list reads a lot like a roster of military job specialties. Veterans who served as electricians, generator mechanics, communications specialists, engineers or military police already know how to keep mission-critical infrastructure running. Many of us learned it in places far less forgiving than a server hall.
These projects also bring investment that reaches beyond their walls: property tax revenue for schools and local services, and new power generation, transmission, substations, fiber and roads. For a veteran coming home to a small town or rural county, that can mean a good career without having to leave family behind.
None of this means communities should accept every project without question. Residents raise real concerns about power use, water, noise, tax incentives, electricity rates and whether promised benefits will actually stay local. Those questions are healthy. Economic development should never mean telling residents their questions don't matter.
In the military, trust is built before the mission, not during it. The same holds here. Developers need to engage communities early, not at a final public hearing. They need to explain what they're building, what resources it will require, what the community gets in return and how they will address legitimate concerns. Trust is far easier to build before opposition forms than after.
The best operators I've seen understand there is a difference between building in a community and becoming part of one. They hire and contract locally, support schools and local organizations, and stay engaged long after construction ends. I'd add one more mark of a good neighbor: deliberately recruiting the veterans who already live there.
To my fellow veterans: this industry needs you. Your discipline, technical training and comfort with high-stakes work translate directly. To residents weighing a project: ask hard questions, demand good information and look past the social media headlines. Supporting responsible development and holding developers accountable are not mutually exclusive.
Data centers are becoming as fundamental to modern life as roads, power lines and telecommunications. Every time you bank online, visit a hospital, swipe a credit card or join a video call, physical infrastructure somewhere makes it possible. We should keep building it. But how we build it matters.
Many of us who served spent years protecting the systems this country runs on. As we move forward from celebrating Veterans Day, I hope we recognize that the infrastructure of the future can give those same veterans a meaningful way to keep serving, this time close to home.
Brian Chen is a U.S. Army veteran who served six years, including a deployment to Afghanistan. He has worked in energy, title and infrastructure for more than a decade and serves on the Board of Directors of REAL Houston.
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