Chris joined the United States Marine Corps in the fall of 1998. After boot camp and marine combat training he was stationed at Pensacola, Florida where he attended the US Navy Aircraft Maintenance School. There he studied jet engines and related power systems.
After completing his training in Pensacola Chris was transferred to Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Florida for additional training and finally assigned his permanent duty station at the Marine Air Station in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Chris is now a maintenance technician and plane captain for the VMFA 312, a Marine Corps F18 Hornet squadron. (The Checkerboards)
Training with the 312 continued taking Chris to Nevada on several occasions for desert warfare training. Being a carrier-based squadron the 312 was assigned to the newest aircraft carrier in the United States Navy, the USS Harry S. Truman. The 312 continued training exercises on the Truman as they cruised the Atlantic along the eastern seaboard. On several occasions they trained in the Caribbean.
The week after Thanksgiving the USS Harry S. Truman shipped out for it maiden voyage. They would cross the Atlantic Ocean and enter the Mediterranean. The Truman visited the Island of Crete several days before Christmas. Chris called us from there. On Christmas Eve they passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea on their way to the Persian Gulf .The VMFA 312 patroled the Southern no fly zone in Iraq. Chris sent us emails almost every day.
Another breakdown in Arkansas sends Chris to Arkansas Air National Guard base at Fort Smith. After arriving the crew was surprised with the news that one of their jets had crashed. Here is a news release of the event.
Military jet crashes in Arkansas, pilot injured
Copyright © 2002 AP Online
By MISTY HALE, Associated Press
PRIM, Ark. (July 26, 2002 10:58 p.m. EDT) - A fighter jet practicing aerial maneuvers crashed in north-central Arkansas Friday and its pilot was hurt after parachuting into a tree, authorities said.
A witness said the jet was "running wide open" in air space set aside for military pilots to practice when it went down in a field.
The pilot, the only person on board, was found dangling from a tree by his parachute shrouds and flown to a hospital, said State Emergency Management Department spokeswoman Jennifer Gordon. Witnesses said it appeared he suffered leg injuries.
"It was just running wide open," farmer Tracy Versa said. "It happened within five seconds. When it hit, the sky filled with smoke."
A state police spokesman said rescue crews kept in contact with the pilot by radio.
The pilot appeared to have badly injured a knee and had cuts and bruises, said Prim Ambulance Service emergency medical technician Kendall Dodson, who was among the first to reach the pilot. He said the pilot was disoriented, at one point asking what had happened.
What remained of the jet was in pieces and airmen worked to extract remnants from a hole 100 feet in diameter, said Capt. John Sheets, a spokesman for Little Rock Air Force Base. Sheets said the jet was not armed and it would take a month or two to determine a cause.
The FA-18 jet was assigned to the Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station in South Carolina, officials said. The South Carolina unit has been training with the 188th Fighter Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard at Fort Smith.
Military pilots use air space over Cleburne County, about 70 miles north of Little Rock, to practice maneuvers, said Master Sgt. Scott Martin of the Little Rock Air Force Base. The area is roughly 20 square miles and extends to an altitude of 20,000 feet.
