Air Force vet strikes out on his own with shipping business

NICEVILLE — When Terrance Turner retired after over two decades in the Air Force, he didn’t know what he was going to do next.

In his late 30s, he needed to find a second career.

He spent six months out of a job before going to work for a defense contractor. While he enjoyed the job, he always dreamed of something more.

“I was tired of working for other people,” Turner said recently.

Last year, Turner took a leap, and now the 49-year-old is running his own shipping business out of his home in Niceville.

As a master sergeant with the 823rd Red Horse Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Turner was in charge of logistics. After retirement, he found contractors coveted his logistics experience, but he wasn’t sure how that could help him branch out into business ownership.

When he began researching in earnest, he heard about Unishippers and found out they would be awarding a franchise to a veteran, so he put his name in.

During the contest interview, company employees asked him what he planned to do if he didn’t win and he said he was going to save up and buy it himself.

“I’d been wanting to do something like that for years,” he said.

But, he won and works out of an office in the spare bedroom of his home. He jokes with his wife about his long commute to work.

Business has been steadily increasing, he said. He plans to reach out to his contacts from his work in the military to see if he might be able to save the government money on their shipping needs.

“I know them, I know how it works, I know what they need,” he said.

Turner said for years he didn’t even know what franchise ownership was. Now he believes it’s a great way for veterans to start a second career.

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