After 29 years of hard work and dedication at Victory Electric, Phil Huffman retired from the cooperative in June. A journeyman lineman, he attended lineman school at Pratt Community College in 1988 and began his line career in 1990 with Centel, which later became Aquila.

Huffman joined Victory Electric in 1995 and became a crew chief in in 1997. He then made a transition to the service crew in 2017.

“It’s been a good job, and the benefits are great,” Huffman said.

He said he enjoyed being able to work with the public throughout his career at Victory Electric. As a serviceman, he was responsible for troubleshooting and restoring outages, performing maintenance and repair work, and responding to service calls from member-owners. He assisted other Victory crews with projects as needed, too.

Huffman reflected on the many changes he saw in his 35 years in the industry, especially in the areas of safety, equipment and vehicles.

“We take safety to a whole new level now, which is good,” he said. Victory Electric had only 10 linemen when he started and has grown considerably since then, as has the cooperative’s fleet of vehicles.

“When I first started, we had one bucket truck for the whole company. The service trucks were just pickups and didn’t have buckets, so we had to climb everything every day,” Huffman said.

The improvements that have been made in technology, such as breakers, also helped considerably in restoring power after outages, he said.

The outdoor working conditions that linemen must face are not always ideal, and equipment doesn’t always work as intended. Victory Electric Vice President of Operations Ryan Miller worked with Huffman since joining the co-op in 1997. He recalled a frustrating experience early in his career while the two were working to replace a transformer.

“I was young and really new, and one day we were changing out a transformer,” Miller said. The transformer locked up after being raised with a winch and wouldn’t budge. As Miller struggled to lower the transformer, Huffman had to wait below in the pigweed, which aggravated his allergies and soured his mood.

In spite of challenges like these, Huffman said he has enjoyed working on the line crew and that the camaraderie with the other linemen has been the best part of working at Victory Electric.

Hurricane Recovery

“Cooperation Among Cooperatives” is one of the seven cooperative principles, and co-ops rely on one another for assistance when disaster strikes. Huffman demonstrated that principle while serving on a Victory Electric crew that traveled to Louisiana with other Kansas rural electric cooperatives in September 2008. The crews helped with recovery efforts after Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike damaged or destroyed thousands of electric poles.

“It was an eye-opener for Kansas boys going down there — the elements, the environment we were working in, and alligators and snakes. Alligators would be right in the ditch while we were trying to work,” he said. The crews coordinated with the National Guard and other groups while assisting Dixie Electric Membership Corp. (DEMCO), headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in restoring its power systems.

Retirement Plans

A longtime hunter, Huffman has raised and sold game birds in his spare time for the past 14 years. He has spent many weekends from August to March delivering to customers in nine states. Huffman plans to focus more time working on his game bird operation in his retirement from Victory Electric. He also wants to travel and pursue his outdoor hobbies.

“I want to spend some time in our cabin in Nebraska, get my boat out and go fishing,” he said.

He also looks forward to spending more time with his grandchildren. “They like coming down to Grandpa’s because I’ve got a pond at the house.”

Victory Electric celebrated Huffman’s career at a retirement reception on June 4.

“Thank you for everything you did for us, and we appreciate your time. Enjoy your retirement!” Miller said, echoing the sentiments of all Victory Electric employees.

Happy retirement, Phil!