Every year, many U.S. service members face the challenge of transitioning from military to civilian life. The life-altering change can be intimidating as they integrate into society and carve new career paths.
Among them is Col. Patrick Schlichenmeyer, who completed a 34-year career with the U.S. Air Force in 2023 and found himself facing a future he hadn’t initially focused on during his service years.
A Lifetime of Service
Schlichenmeyer’s journey began when he entered the Air Force Academy in 1989 at age 18. During his career he served as a pilot, participated in staff assignments and held command positions in combat. By summer 2022, as his mandatory service time came to an end, he started contemplating life outside the military.
“When I entered the military, I wanted to serve where my country needed me,” Schlichenmeyer says. “I served as long as I could, and then I had to transition to civilian life. I didn’t start thinking about my future until about a year before.”
Schlichenmeyer was certain about one thing: a desire to permanently return to Minnesota’s Twin Cities, where his wife resided in a suburb of St. Paul. While eager to reunite, the change also brought an element of uncertainty.
“I entered the academy at 18, so that was all I knew,” he says. “I had some idea of civilian culture through my spouse, but there were many unknowns.”
Discovering SkillBridge
Schlichenmeyer wouldn’t forge a new path alone. With a transition focused on the Twin Cities, he began exploring the SkillBridge program, which helps service members explore new career fields and gain experience. Land O’Lakes, which participates in the program, emerged as a potential destination for Schlichenmeyer’s skills.
SkillBridge offers a support system to help military personnel find civilian workforce opportunities. The program connects service members with corporate partners across the country and provides up to 180 days of “permissive duty” for them to get on-the-job training as interns for a company, with the goal of providing full-time job opportunities. SkillBridge helped nearly 8,500 service members find work with around 5,000 companies nationwide in the third quarter of 2024, according to the program website.
Once connected with someone at Land O’Lakes, Schlichenmeyer explored job openings and assessed if the company’s culture matched his aspirations.
“From there, I started looking at the employee website and was extremely surprised at how open Land O’Lakes is about their people, their mission, what the executive leadership team believes in,” he says. “The more that I read and understood what the company stood for, that’s something that I felt would be a good fit. I was surprised at how open Land O’Lakes is about their mission and values. The more I learned, the more it felt like a good fit.”
Embracing a New Role
Schlichenmeyer joined Land O’Lakes in February 2023 as a SkillBridge intern. He now serves as operational excellence manager at the company’s Melrose, Minn., dairy plant and was recently appointed as an expert project manager at headquarters.
Schlichenmeyer’s story is one example of the many benefits of SkillBridge. Julie Sexton, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Land O’Lakes, emphasizes the value veterans bring.
“It’s about recruiting broadly across diverse talent pools,” she says. “Post-COVID, we expanded our recruitment strategies.”
Sexton describes the partnership with SkillBridge as both successful and fulfilling, reflecting Land O’Lakes’ mission to support those who have served.
“It’s rewarding to help service members transition to the next phase of life,” she says. “It’s a way of giving back to valuable community members.”
Land O’Lakes’ involvement with the SkillBridge program has yielded numerous success stories, with 13 current interns and 25 veterans completing internships — seven of whom secured full-time roles.
“I was looking for some place where I could go to work with good people who care about each other that are doing something important for this country,” Schlichenmeyer says. “That’s Land O’Lakes.”
His journey from a seasoned Air Force colonel to a leadership role in the civilian sector not only demonstrates the adaptability and impact of programs like SkillBridge, it serves as inspiration for other veterans embarking on their own transitions.
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