For many veterans, leaving the military means leaving behind a sense of purpose, camaraderie and servant leadership. But for some former service members, those same qualities are being put to use in convenience store roles. Here’s a look at four veterans who are serving the industry after serving the country. 

Camaraderie in Combat and Community Connections: William Domko

William Domko’s shift at the Parkside Urban Value Corner Store in McKinney, Texas, starts like most others—with familiar faces. Residents from the apartments above stop in for an energy drink or a snack and linger to talk about their days. He knows their names, their routines and often their challenges. Some days, he said, it feels less like being a retail employee and more like being a bartender or a barber—someone who listens, remembers and connects.

That openness to getting to know people comes in part from his years in the service. 

“A big thing in the Army is that you build those interpersonal connections with your fellow soldiers,” Domko told NACS. “It’s an essential part of the servant-first mentality that ‘the team is greater than I.’”

Having grown up in a military family, Domko has an instinct to serve that runs deep. His father served 25 years and his brother 10, and Domko followed the tradition with a decade in the Army. He became a staff sergeant and sniper section leader, deploying first to Iraq out of Fort Carson, Colorado, and then to Afghanistan. An injury in Afghanistan curtailed his military career, but his discipline in setting routines stuck with him.

When Domko left the service, he was searching for a new sense of purpose while working through his recovery. His wife, who was already working at Urban Value, spoke highly of the company’s mission—improving the experience for residents of the building that the store was attached to—and of how its leadership invested in her development. Curious, Domko met with Urban Value Founder and CEO Steve McKinley. In the interview, they connected over the idea of servant leadership, in which a leader’s role is to support their team so that each person can succeed. McKinley advised Domko to start as an associate and learn Urban Value’s business model of convenience as an amenity. 

Less than two months later, a management position opened at Urban Value’s flagship location and Domko was offered the role. McKinley himself sets the standard, Domko said, reinforcing the servant leadership values paramount to military training. “[McKinley] is the kind of owner that will come in and talk to you for a few minutes, and then he’s stocking shelves—he’s fronting and facing,” he said. “He’s just super involved, getting his hands dirty with everybody else.”

Urban Value’s unique setup in apartment complexes results in daily interaction with residents and a chance to become part of the fabric of the community.

That connection to people rekindled something from Domko’s Army days: the satisfaction of serving others. Now, Domko is preparing for his next mission: earning a degree in clinical social work with the goal of helping veterans access the benefits and services they’ve earned. 

Looking back, Domko said the environment at Urban Value mirrors what many veterans miss after leaving the military: a sense of purpose, strong leadership and being valued as part of a team. 

Leading Zelmo’s Shift Toward Servant Leadership: Terry Hoffman

During his father’s more than 23 years in the Air Force, Terry Hoffman grew up immersed in military life and lived everywhere from Anchorage, Alaska to Tehran. Hoffman enlisted after high school and served one tour as an airman first class supply specialist stationed in the Azores. The military’s focus on discipline, teamwork and meeting strict standards shaped Hoffman’s core values early on and have carried him through 50 years of work, he said. 

After his service, Hoffman spent 25 years in retail, including running several of his own businesses. “Everybody had a job to do, but everybody also had to do everybody else’s job, too,” he said. “That’s the whole motto with any kind of military service. It’s the ‘I got your six’ mentality.” The mindset prepared him for his eventual role at Columbus, Georgia-based Zelmo’s Zip In convenience stores, where he became the company’s first dedicated human resources employee in more than 20 years.

Hoffman’s entry into Zelmo’s—part of Whatley Convenience Stores—was somewhat serendipitous. His wife, a longtime employee who became director of operations, wanted to ensure her store was in good hands before accepting a promotion she’d been offered. Hoffman had already retired by then. “Guess who was sitting at home with nothing to do and 20 years of retail experience?” Hoffman said with a laugh. 

In his current role as people operations leader, Hoffman draws heavily on military strategies—structure, clear communication and adaptability—to transform Zelmo’s management strategy into a servant leadership model. He helped introduce formal onboarding, employee handbooks, SOPs and technology tools. “I started tracking every matrix I could think of to promote and advance people,” he said. “It reminded me of what I used to do in the military.”

Central to Hoffman’s approach is the belief that effective leaders must be willing to serve alongside their teams and relay their mission statement. “The tenet of servant leadership is, ‘To lead is to serve.’ If you’re not willing to serve, you can’t lead people,” he said. Whether it’s running a register or grabbing a mop, Hoffman leads by example, fostering a culture of empathy and recognition. “Instead of ‘You’re late; here’s a write-up,’ we ask, ‘Why were you late today?’” 

With most Zelmo’s stores located near Fort Benning, Georgia, about 70% of its customer base is affiliated with the military. Hoffman makes a point to thank uniformed customers personally and the stores offer military specials. The location makes for a good hiring pipeline for Zelmo’s, too: Hoffman believes veterans bring an innate service mindset to their roles, quickly adapting to customer service and operational demands. “It’s almost natural that when a veteran employee comes in, it’s like they are automatically looking to serve,” he said.

Skills For Success: Matthew Sterwerf

For 20 years, Matthew Sterwerf served in the Kentucky National Guard, based in Lexington. He began his career in field artillery, but his focus shifted after deploying to Iraq in 2006. Stationed at Camp Taji, his unit provided convoy security for a year—a mission that demanded precision, adaptability and trust among team members.

After returning home, Sterwerf continued in field artillery and advanced to warrant officer. His assignments took him to Germany and other locations for large-scale exercises before his retirement in 2018 as a chief warrant officer 2, he said.

That same year, Sterwerf began a new chapter at CAF Outdoor Cleaning, an industrial cleaning products company that supports convenience stores nationwide.

“They’ve been absolutely phenomenal in helping me transition from the military and supporting me with everything that I’ve been trying to do in my recovery,” he said. “Just integrating into civilian life after you come back from war is definitely difficult.” 

Sterwerf said CAF’s human resources department has been “extremely under-standing” in giving him the space and freedom to manage the transition back to civilian life. 

Sterwerf sees clear and constant parallels between military service and convenience stores. “Work here is very structured like the military in that you have a small team,” he said. “You have to be close-knit; you have to work together. And if you don’t, you’re going to struggle as a team.” 

Even the demanding hours feel familiar. “The other day, I started my day at 7 a.m. and I got home at 5 a.m. the next day … and the military really helped me to prepare for that sort of thing.”

Sterwerf believes the convenience store industry could tap even more into the skills veterans bring. “From Day 1, the military builds leadership. A lot of times, those skills aren’t fully employed when veterans transition,” he said. “The amount of management skills that come with individuals who have been in the military … is astronomical.” If convenience stores did a better job understanding what veterans have to offer, he said, the industry would “absolutely have a phenomenal pipeline of vets.” 

For Sterwerf, both the military and the convenience industry share one standout quality: people. “Camaraderie in the convenience store world, among people
from every walk of life, makes it the only place that’s like the military,” he said.

From ‘Top Gun’ at Sea to AI Technology: Erick Parsons

Erick Parsons enlisted in the military in 2017, originally aiming to become a Navy SEAL. “It kicked my ass a little bit,” he said with a laugh. So after boot camp, he shifted to become an independent public affairs officer—a mass communications specialist who documents Navy operations.

That role brought him a standout assignment during Exercise Northern Edge aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. “The Navy got paid to shoot ‘Top [Gun: Maverick]’ scenes on an aircraft carrier,” Parsons said. His job was to escort the civilian film crew—actors, plus the hair and makeup teams—around the ship while they shot scenes in Alaska. “For two weeks, it was taking them around the ship, making sure that they had all that they needed, taking them to work out, hanging out with them at dinner and things like that.” 

Amid the disruptions of Covid, Parsons’ deployment shifted from the South China Sea to counter-narcotics operations in South America. “We teamed up with the Coast Guard and I essentially documented all the photojournalism plans for how we cover drug busts,” he said. 

Parsons then earned aircrew qualifications while learning how to survive underwater in the event of a helicopter crash. He also spent time with security forces handling weapons and standing watch on ships and bases. Later, while stationed at the Naval hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, he focused on medical procedure photography.

After nearly six years of service, Parsons transitioned to civilian life. He describes the process as rife with “What if?” thinking. “Where do I live next? Do I want to stay here? Things like that.” 

During this transition, Mashgin, a company that offers AI-assisted checkout technology, reached out with a client success specialist role. “Mashgin met me halfway in terms of getting me on-site and proving that I had some technical skills,” he said. “They really opened up a lot of doors for someone like me, who was iffy about which way I wanted to go. They kind of gave me a light to follow.”

Attention to detail is paramount for Parsons. “With all the different failure points among all the moving parts that our product pilots and integrations come with, I have to make sure that I’m paying attention to even the smallest things,” he said. “If I lose track of the small things, then the bigger things will never be solved, and having that drilled into me from the military world from the get-go set me up really well for success at Mashgin.”