ORLANDO, Fla. – From the theater of war to the theater of the Dr. Phillips Center, two veterans are now serving the community in a different way.
When veterans Ryan Lockwood and Luke Pendegrass first volunteered for the military, they did it knowing the sacrifices first-hand. Both men come from families with generations of service.
“My father served in Vietnam, but he was also exposed to Agent Orange while he was there,” Lockwood said. “So we still have soldiers that were exposed or have these injuries that they take from these deployments or wherever they go, and they still are dying from these things.”
It’s something both men have reflected on. Like so many other veterans when the curtain closes on their active military career, they look for a new calling in life.
“I was in the U.S. Army from 1994 to 1998. My job was a 31 Fox, which was in communications, mobile communications,” Lockwood said.
“I was in the Air Force with security forces and that’s pretty much like security and mobile police,” Pendegrass said.
For them, their second act is now at the Dr. Phillips Center in the heart of the 32801 ZIP code.
“I think it’s just a different type of service,” Pendegrass said. “Before it was, you know, for the country and now it’s for people in our local community. To see them having a good time, smile and see all the stuff that happens here, it’s all worth it.”
Pendegrass, who was deployed to Turkey as part of a security force, is now the senior IT analyst while Lockwood, who in the Army’s Airborne Division jumped out of planes, now serves as the ticketing software manager.
“We may not use the skills that we learned in the military, but it’s those soft skills we learned in the military that help us,” Lockwood said. “We are able to deal with pressure and stress and also understand how teamwork helps not hurts.”
It’s that fine touch helps make the award-winning Dr. Phillips Center run like a well-oiled machine. The nonprofit has hosted more than 4,000 performances with 4.7 million guests coming through its doors since opening in 2014.
It’s also been given top honors from Travel + Leisure, Southern Living and Architectural Digest magazines.
For Lockwood and Pendegrass, who work alongside many other veterans at the Dr. Phillips Center, it’s the place where they have a new call of duty.
“Everyday (the Dr. Phillips Center) is living. I come in the back door, I go through the dock and I can see everybody setting up in the dock area. I get to walk through that, take the elevator up and I see everybody in the bullpen working on marketing, or all the other parts in the development side or what we have planned for any donors coming in for lunch,” Lockwood said. “It’s constantly living, breathing, eating. You’re not driving out to some suburban location where it’s just another building like everything else.”
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