JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Long before Navy planes soar through the air, there's constant work being done on the ground. In this week's Stories of Service, we meet an aviation electrician whose attention to detail helps keep planes in the air.
During a brief, quiet moment, Christopher Flores is able to look out on the planes he helps maintain at Naval Air Station Jacksonville (NAS Jax).
"This is a training command, so we have a lot more people, a lot more air crew," Flores told First Coast News. "We're allotted more aircrafts, which is a lot more work."
Equipped with a toolbox full of everything he needs, attention to detail was instilled in Flores since bootcamp.
"The things we do will affect this flight," Flores said. "When we do something on this aircraft, think about who's flying on it. It's been instilled since my career started about doing the right thing, doing stuff correctly by the book, so I've tried to keep with that my whole career."
It's a career that has taken him to different parts of the world to work on some of the key pieces of equipment for the Navy.
"It feels really good," said Flores. "There's a sense of pride when they call over the radio and they're having an issue and we have to fix it before they take off."
Life has changed considerably for E5 AE2 Flores since he joined the Navy 10 years ago. He's now married with two kids and said when he gets home, he focuses on the very important job of being a dad.
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