Meet the Redmers
This month we are spotlighting Kevin and Charlene Redmer. The Redmers are a couple who met during their military service and are two long-time employees and present leaders within Radiance for the Operational Intelligence Group at Fort Gordon in Georgia.
To give you a little background about the couple, they both grew up in southern Florida, Kevin in Daytona and Charlene in Orlando. They both served in the military, Charlene in the Air Force and Kevin in the Marines, and then they both were stationed in Augusta, GA, in 2000, the year they met. After meeting through a mutual group of friends, the couple married in December of 2000. They now have two boys.
“Our birthdays are in the same month, we both lived in Florida in our teenage years, we both joined the military…. it’s funny that once we finally started dating and talking, we realized that we were at a lot of the same places at the same time in Florida and in our military careers,” said Kevin. “Our friend circles overlapped, but we had never met.”
Kevin and Charlene Redmer
“One night a mutual group of our friends went out, and we finally met and just really hit things off. It’s funny if you trace it back. We kind of went down the same paths but never met each other before,” said Charlene.
“We grew up like 40 or 50 miles away from each other and went to a lot of the same places and events at the same time. We followed each other unknowingly all across the country — she in the Air Force and me in the Marine Corps—and finally ended up in Augusta, Georgia. It’s a bunch of happy coincidences” said Kevin.
So how did both Charlene and Kevin end up at Radiance? In 2010, Radiance employees Jeff Sottosanti and Brad Beazer—two of the officers they came to respect during their service—introduced the couple to Radiance. Kevin joined Radiance in October 2010, and Charlene joined in January 2011, and they have been with Radiance ever since.
“I have a lot of good days at work. I am fortunate to work in a very rewarding job where we do accomplish things of significance often enough to see a somewhat immediate return on the work you put in,” said Kevin.
“Having that close relationship with our headquarters, while being at a remote site, I still feel like we are a big part of this company,” said Charlene. “Even though we are not there at corporate headquarters, we feel like we are.”
After calling them up and talking to them for a while about their stories and life journeys, I asked them why they wanted to continue to stay at Radiance. They both told me that they started here and stay here because of the people and the professionalism within the company.
“The professionalism we have encountered at Radiance, and the family-type of bonds we have made are priceless,” said Charlene. “It is a company that is more like a family.”
“That’s easy. That’s really easy. It’s the relationships,” said Kevin. “The relationships mean a lot to me and so does the great culture that Radiance encourages.”
Charlene is the Program Manager for our Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination analyst support operations at Ft. Gordon and, as recently announced, the Director of the newly minted ISR Analyst Division. Kevin is the Program Manager of the SOCOM JGASS contract and provides support to our INSCOM Analyst operations at Ft. Gordon. Radiance is fortunate to have great people like Kevin and Charlene in the company.
I wanted to ask Kevin just one more question. What would you say to someone you were trying to recruit to work at Radiance?
“I would definitely touch on the benefits and employee ownership. You know, that is really important to me. I would really want to sell them on the path of moving upwards and the type of culture we have. I would also stress the great personal relationships that are within the company. Everyone really speaks out and embraces everyone. We bring new people into the ‘family’ with open arms. We treat them the same way we treat someone who has worked with us for 20 years. Once you’re in, you’re in. I think that culture is something you lose in a lot of other companies. You have that ability here at Radiance to come in and be a person, instead of just a number.”