Latinx Experiences at Hanford: Frank Armijo

Many people in the Tri-Cities have origin stories that include migration, dedication to family, hard work and contributions to the community. The origin stories of Latinas and Latinos are no different. The Hanford Latinx Experiences oral history interviews share the experiences of just a handful of the many Latinas and Latinos who have contributed unique skills to the development of the Manhattan Project, to Hanford, and to the Tri-Cities. These stories reflect the lives of many people who helped build a place that hundreds of thousands call home today.

Frank Armijo’s parents were initially migrant farm workers from Texas who had met in Walla Walla. On one of the family’s work trips to the state, Frank’s dad, Rosalio, picked up additional work with a construction company that brought the family to the Tri-Cities around the early-1960s. Frank attended McLaughlin Middle School and Pasco High School. At Columbia Basin College, he discovered that he possessed exceptional skills in computer science which would lead him into a long career in technology and business at Hanford for fifteen years. Frank became the president of the Hanford Mission Support Alliance contract in his role at Lockheed Martin. Passionate about his work, Frank led many efforts to diversify the economy of the Tri-Cities area while also co-founding the Hispanic Academic Achievers Program (HAAP) in the late 1980s. Frank shares memories growing up in Pasco, his joy and passion in the work that he accomplished at Hanford, and advice for youth.

Frank talks about his family's migration story

Frank talks about his family's migration story in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 25, 2024.

Date created:
01/30/2025

Drew Gamboa

Frank, you were sharing with me about your mom's side of the family. Is that right?

Frank Armijo

Yeah. Both my parents and their parents, my grandparents, were from Edinburg, Texas, and they were all migrant farm workers. The families worked between Texas and Joaquin Valley, California, and Washington state. They worked the fields to make a living. My parents actually met at a roller rink in Walla Walla. They probably knew each other, but that's when they started dating. They were married quite young, eighteen years old. Then, they thought they were going to stay in Texas, but on one of their trips to Washington State, my dad needed a job. They were working the fields, but he wanted to pick up some additional work. He got a job on the railroad—George Grant, from Grant Construction—went down to the railroad and met my dad and asked him if he would like a job with good pay and benefits. My dad said, “Of course.” He became a construction laborer, worker for George Grant Construction for the next 35-40 years. A lot of their work was out of Hanford. That's how many of my relatives ended up working construction. Several of them were back to Texas, but several of them ended up staying in the Tri-Cities area as well. Eventually, my mom landed a food processing job in Pasco at a food processing plant there. I believe today it is Lamb Weston or Con Agra or one of the two. We ended up moving to the Tri-Cities and started out in the Navy homes. My parents purchased a home near Pasco High on Route 13 in Pasco and, and that's where I grew up.

Frank remembers growing up in Pasco

Frank remembers growing up in Pasco in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 25, 2024.

Date created:
01/30/2025

Frank Armijo

… I played sports growing up. My dad and mom got me involved in sports, and it was great for me in Pasco. Living in Pasco, we had a growing Hispanic population. We had a pretty healthy sized African-American population and a very diverse community and school district. A lot of my friends playing sports at Pasco, whether it was McLaughlin or Pasco High, were from all kinds of backgrounds. Some of them were from the East Side. Some of them were poor. Some of them were middle class. Some of them were rich—what I considered rich back then. You know, their parents were doctors and lawyers and the like… It was great growing up in Pasco, and it was pretty diverse and interesting times, good times. Sports drove me to try out and play basketball for CBC. I was successful playing for Pasco High. I was able to walk-on to CBC, and that's where I focused on getting my college education at that time as well.

Frank goes to CBC and Eastern Washington

Frank discusses going to CBC and Eastern Washington in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 25, 2024.

Date created:
01/30/2025

Drew Gamboa

I guess you kind of shared that you graduated from Pasco High, ended up going to CBC. What year did you graduate?

Frank Armijo

I graduated from Pasco High in 1981. I thought I was going to be a laborer like my dad, go work construction. But, I loved basketball, and so I was playing basketball every day at the local park. I played against some guys from Portland, Oregon who said they were here to play for Columbia Basin College. I just thought I was as good, if not better than them. I decided that I was going to get another part-time job, which was at Kennewick General Hospital, and I walked on to CBC and I enrolled at CBC and paid for my first quarter or first semester at CBC and made the basketball team and earned a scholarship and ended up playing for them for two years. Basketball got me into higher ed. Then, I also felt like I had a community, my basketball friends. I developed a community there, and it made me more comfortable. While I was at CBC, I took one of those aptitude tests, and it said I scored in the top 2% when it came to computer science. I thought that was kind of crazy, because I hadn't touched a computer in my entire life, but my coach and my counselor helped get me in the CBC computer science program. I learned how to program. I took basic computer programming and then RPG II, then Pascal, and Fortran. I learned I was a pretty good computer programmer, so that aptitude test was right. It was while I was there that I met my girlfriend, Sherry, who's now my wife. I started thinking differently all of a sudden about higher education. This could be a career. This could be something that could make a difference for me. I ended up graduating CBC with an AS in computer science, and my girlfriend decided to pursue her bachelors. She knew she was going to get her bachelor's degree at Eastern [Washington University]. I thought I'd better follow her, because obviously I was in love.

Frank gets a job offer at Hanford

Frank discusses getting a job offer at Hanford in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 25, 2024.

Date created:
01/30/2025

… I had some job offers in Seattle, which they gave me tests, and it was great. But the ones at Boeing Computer Services, one manager liked me. He said, “Yeah, you're just what I'm looking for.” But another manager didn't like my GPA, but I ended up getting a job offer, making $23,000 a year, which was huge back in 1986. My job offer in Seattle was for $20,000 a year. I thought, “Oh, my gosh, $3,000.” That's the only reason I took the job at Hanford. Boeing Computer Services back then was supporting the whole Hanford site with computer systems. My first job was a network administrator, and I thought, “Okay, I'm going to be at Hanford for two years, tops. That's it.” Sherry, my girlfriend, was not happy about me coming back to Hanford, but she decided to come to work in the Richland area as well. That two years ended up being much longer, obviously, because I spent ten years with Boeing Computer Services, and then I joined Lockheed Martin when they won the contract. I spent the next 26, 27 years with Lockheed Martin, of which the next 15 years practically were all at Hanford, where I grew my career with Boeing and grew my career with Lockheed. Eventually became president of a Hanford contract. Back then, it was the Mission Support Alliance contract. It is now the Hanford Mission Integration Solutions contract out at the Hanford site. It was with Lockheed Martin that I became the president of that entity.

Frank describes his initial years at Hanford

Frank describes his initial years at Hanford in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 25, 2024.

Date created:
01/30/2025

Drew Gamboa

Do you remember the first day you started working at Hanford?

Frank Armijo

Yeah. My first office was on the third floor of the Federal building where DOE [Department of Energy] was. I was like, “Oh my gosh.” I remember I got up early. I actually came to work. I moved back with my parents, and I wanted to save money, before I moved out on my own. I remember I timed on the weekend before my first day on the job. I wanted to time how long it would take me to get to work, because I wanted to… My parents grew up, and I learned work ethic. I wanted to show up early, and I wanted to stay late. I've been used to being a laborer or a worker all my life, but other than working in the computer science lab, I was like, “Okay, I'm going to show up early.” I showed up early, and all of a sudden everybody's wearing a tie and dressed nice. I had an office with an office mate and kind of in cubes, but in an office. I was just learning about computer systems and being a network administrator, and I was learning. It was just… I'd come home exhausted every day, and I was thinking, “Why am I so tired? I didn't lift anything. I didn't dig anything. I wasn't out working with my hands all day.” I was tired. I'd come home exhausted, but I was enjoying myself. I was learning. I was making a difference. Part of me couldn't believe I was getting paid for what I was doing, what I was learning. I felt like I was pretty good at it. I was like, “Oh, this is fantastic.” Working at Hanford, periodically we'd go out on the site. We'd have to go to server rooms out on the site. We were testing new technology. You're too young to recognize, but it was a new IBM-XT with a 30-megabyte hard disk and a five and a quarter inch drive and then it was a three and a half inch drive. I was getting to learn all this stuff, and Microsoft was just becoming big. IBM was ruling the day back then. It was all learning, and it was exciting. It was fantastic. I just loved it.

Frank gets a job at Lockheed Martin and co-found HAAP

Frank discusses getting a job at Lockheed Martin and co-founding HAAP in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 25, 2024.

Date created:
01/30/2025

Frank Armijo

I ended up getting a job offer. I had two young daughters at the time, and my parents, my mom and dad, were… My mom was retired and she was taking care of our daughters. My wife worked for a local company and was doing fine, doing well. Between my parents and my wife, they didn't want to move to Seattle. I ended up getting a job offer with Lockheed Martin to stay and continue to support Hanford but in a different role. I decided to do that. We ended up staying in ‘96. I joined Lockheed Martin Information Technology. We were one of the enterprise companies back in that contract, where we did support for the Hanford site, but we were also responsible for trying to bring in work into the Tri-Cities area and create economic development. We are one of the few companies that were very successful at doing that. We ended up winning a lot of contracts and bringing work to the Tri-Cities to help diversify the economy, but also to help bring down costs to the Hanford site… I kind of developed my own level of visibility and being successful doing that, ended up getting very involved in the community. I did mention it before, but obviously I graduated CBC. Within a few years of graduating at Eastern, in ’88, we started the Hispanic Academic Achievers Program, which I co-founded with a few others. Too many Hispanic kids were doing well academically but not pursuing higher education, or they’d do well academically and then they get pulled out to go support their families with work which is great. But, we wanted to educate Hispanic families in English and Spanish the importance of education and that the best path to a successful life for your kids and the American Dream is to get your education. We wanted them to finish high school but also to consider higher ed. So, HAAP began in 1988.

Frank shares his proudest moments at Hanford

Frank shares his proudest moments at Hanford in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 25, 2024.

Date created:
01/30/2025

Drew Gamboa

Is there like a particular time that you worked at Hanford that was the most enjoyable for yourself? Or where you feel like you made the most impact, either in the community or specifically within Hanford or within the company that you were working for?

Frank Armijo

… I remember my first few months on the job, I could not believe what my career was. Coming from a family that was blue collar my whole life, you know, migrant farm workers, to being able to get paid for learning new technology. To me, that was a significant moment in my life. I will never forget. The other is when I started doing business development for Lockheed Martin and bringing jobs to Hanford while doing things that were beneficial to Hanford and to the Tri-Cities community. I was able to travel across the United States and try to bring work to Hanford. I was learning about all the great work Lockheed Martin did across the United States for the federal government, for international clients, for commercial clients. I was thoroughly impressed with the company, and I thoroughly loved trying to make a positive difference for both Hanford and the community. To me, that's the second. The last one is probably the one that had the biggest impact for me, and that was when I became president of the Mission Support Contract at Hanford. I mean, here I was a local guy, you know, Pasco High grad, first generation college student, and now I'm President of one of the Hanford contractors. I get to make a positive difference, both on Hanford and the Tri-Cities community, and my mom and dad were still alive. I felt very proud, because I know my mom and dad were proud of me and my sisters and my family. To me, those were the three significant moments in my life that I that cherish in terms of my Hanford experience.

Frank shares a memory of a trip to DC with family

Frank shares a memory of a trip to DC with family in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 25, 2024.

Date created:
01/30/2025

Drew Gamboa

I guess you kind of shared earlier, too, about a story you had with your parents, traveling to DC or something. I'm not sure if you want to share that or not.

Frank Armijo

Well, I was on the CBC Board of Trustees, and there was a National Trustee Association in D.C., and my parents never flew hardly anywhere, and this time I am flying a little bit. I worked really hard to convince my parents to travel back with my wife and I to Washington, D.C. I wanted to take them around D.C. and take advantage of the opportunity. Pretty much the only time my parents traveled was by car or the one time they went to the Chicago Convention in ’68, which was kind of a crazy Convention to go to. I finally convinced them… And, it was in the winter. We had a great trip to D.C. My dad was having Tabasco on everything. I remember we had a black-tie affair or kind of a formal affair, one of those banquets where they bring all the soup at the same time, all the meals at the same time. They brought some fancy soup, and my dad asked the waiter, “Where's the Tabasco?” [laughter] Back then, it wasn't as common. It's very common today, but back then it wasn’t. The guy’s looking around like, “What do you mean, Tabasco?” And so, my mom pulled some out of her purse. [laughter] And so then, we had a great experience in D.C. It was a trip I always remember.

Frank shares advice to youth

Frank shares advice to youth in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 25, 2024.

Date created:
01/30/2025

Drew Gamboa

If you could kind of share advice to a younger person that may have had similar experiences as you growing up, what type of advice would you give younger generations, younger folks?

Frank Armijo

… you got to bring a work ethic. You got to try to make a positive difference for the group you're working for, for the people you work with and for the customers that you support. Try to be a positive influence and make a positive difference on the role, whatever role you have in your company and in the workforce. Try to make a positive difference and have a work ethic. Try to be easy to work with, get along with others, support other people's success. If you support other people's success, you'll get support when you need support. I think that is critical. Lastly, I'd say you always got to give back. Make it a positive difference for your family, but when you can, reach out and make a positive difference for your community whatever that is. Try to do your best to give back. My parents did, no matter how poor they were, no matter whatever level they were at. My mom and dad always gave something to their family, to the community. They just always were involved in trying to support other people. I think you learn a lot and I think some of my professional success is, because I was busy getting involved in the community.

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