For Part 2 of our Faces of the Future series for the Line Life Podcast, we are featuring Theron Tucker, a fourth-year apprentice for Midwest Energy. He trained at Northwest Lineman College before joining a line crew at his utility close to his hometown.
"Having the experience of operating farm equipment on my family's ranch helped me in the line trade," he says.
By the time he was a sophomore in high school, he knew he wanted to be a lineworker one day. While at Midwest Energy, he had about 99 percent of his training in the field, and he says he was lucky to join a utility with great journeymen and foremen.
He also had the opportunity to restore power following a windstorm.
"My first big storm work was from a 100-mph+ windstorm in western Kansas," he says. "This caused multiple fires to spark up and burn everything in its path. Work conditions were 10° weather with high winds blowing piles of ash over everything. It made it hard to breathe. It felt great, however, to get customers’ power turned on for Christmas."
Tucker was the 2023 PLP Armor Rod Challenge champion at the International Lineman's Expo. After we posted a video from PLP on our Instagram page, Linemen World, it captured millions of views.
To learn more about Theron, check out his profile in T&D World magazine or listen to the episode.
