Bob Wheeler
I’m a Navy Veteran who served during the Cold War from 1983 to 1987. I was a radioman who served aboard the USS California CGN-36. The USS California was based out of Alameda, CA. We spent most of our time in the Persian Gulf with several operations off the coast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky playing with the Russian submarine navy.
After the service, I went to college to earn a natural resource management and spatial information systems degree. I have worked for a large Agribusiness, J.R. Simplot, since 1997. For the first ten years with Simplot, I concentrated on Precision Agriculture, where I introduced technology concepts to customers (farmers) to improve crop yield and quality for permanent and row crops. I’ve concentrated on implementing Enterprise Geographic Information Systems to assist in the company’s many facets to improve efficiencies for the later part of my career at Simplot. I am the lead person for the Simplot Military Alliance Employee Resource Group (ERG) and am responsible for coordination efforts among all of Simplot’s ERGs.
I am the President of the Farmer Veteran Coalition of Idaho (FVC) and active in my Veteran of Foreign Wars Meridian Post 4000 and District 5 Honor Guard. I wanted to be part of the FVC of Idaho because I have been a Veteran in the agriculture industry for the past 26 years. My experience with the J.R. Simplot Company has allowed me to see many facets of farming and ranching. I want to bring those experiences and expertise to assist my fellow Veterans.