Uncleared Connections: Fab Five

Kierya Freiboth, Macey Ray, Alicia Bermudez, Hunter Rose, and Riley Blacksten

The crowd is on its feet, a deafening roar filling the arena. Michigan has possession, and the ball is in the hands of Jalen Rose who is calmly dribbling past half-court before passing to an open Chris Webber. Time is ticking away – five seconds, four seconds, three ... The clock hits zero and ... SWISH! The Fab Five has done it again.

The 1991 Michigan Wolverines Fab Five basketball team is considered one of the greatest recruiting classes of all time. While Pantex doesn’t compete in college basketball, we also recruit and retain the best of the best to achieve our national security mission. That includes our own group of five fabulous weapons engineers: Macey Ray, Hunter Rose, Kierya Freiboth, Alicia Bermudez, and Riley Blacksten.

“We work for the Weapons Material Program,” Freiboth said. “As material engineers, our group owns the entire life cycle of materials used across the plant. We are involved with various working groups and programs to ensure needs are met throughout the site.”

The five Pantexans started right out of college then spent the next three months in the uncleared room where they all sat in the same row, awaiting their clearances. Just like the legendary Michigan team, who was the first in NCAA history to compete in the championship game with all freshman starters, the engineers were the new kids on the block. But just because you’re new doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish great things.

“Pantex is so much different than any other place of employment, so we had a collective lack of knowledge and were going through it together,” Bermudez said. “When we first started, we were assigned big group projects to work, so we were collaborating and learning as a team.”

“We were able to learn as a group,” Ray said. “We are very team oriented, collaborating on the same work day in and day out. At first, it was doing uncleared work together but then we became friends out of it and started doing things outside of work.”

Rose, Freiboth, and Bermudez aren’t local to Amarillo. Ray and Blacksten helped welcome them to the area by socializing after work and attending local events they all enjoyed.

“It can get lonely without friends and knowing the area,” Bermudez said. “I think networking in the uncleared room helps with retention. Before I moved here, I didn’t know how long I would stay, but I like it here now. You’re here for 9 hours a day; if you’re not friends with people you work with, it makes it harder to find friends outside of work.”

“Meeting each other in the uncleared room diversified our knowledge outside of what we’re the subject matter expert over, so we’re more well-rounded,” Freiboth said.

From concerts to hiking to game nights, the group is together more often than they’re apart. They do so much outside of work that it makes it so there are no communication barriers at the plant.

“It’s so nice that it translates from outside of work. We hold each other accountable,” Ray said. “Since I see us all on the same playing field, it’s motivating because I don’t want to be the one dragging us down, so it makes us work harder for each other.”

Thanks to their own positive experience in the uncleared room, the group had advice for new Pantexans going in.

“In your downtime between trainings, don’t just focus on the screen – focus on the people,” Bermudez said. “There is work to do and it’s important to do it, but the connections you make in there will be what help you get work done as you progress in your career. You grow your social skills by networking with the people around you. Use that as an opportunity. There is no better time to start.”
So, while the material engineers won’t be shooting hoops at a collegiate level anytime soon, their friendship does score major points.

“Pantex would’ve been great without them, but it is 10 times better with them,” Ray said.