HOSS

“Hoss,” the fun-loving sci-fi aviator of VFA-147, took one of the more unconventional routes to the cockpit, beginning his Navy career as an avionics technician, AT1(AW/SW), with an intimate understanding of the machines he would eventually fly.

His journey into aviation allegedly began when a particularly cocky pilot bet him that fixing jets didn’t mean he could fly one any better...a challenge Hoss accepted, remembered, and has enjoyed proving wrong ever since.

That technical background makes him especially formidable in the cockpit, where his systems knowledge, mechanical instincts, and natural curiosity allow him to understand the Hornet on a level few pilots can match. A devoted science-fiction fan, Hoss has the quirky habit of assigning Star Trek-style engineering diagnoses to aircraft problems, occasionally informing maintenance that “the warp core is unstable” before providing the perfectly legitimate discrepancy.

Despite now wearing wings, Hoss never forgets his enlisted maintenance roots and maintains that every pilot should occasionally be handed a toolbox just to keep their ego properly calibrated. With technical expertise, good humor, and the satisfaction of winning a bet that fundamentally changed his career, Hoss brings a uniquely enlisted-to-aviator perspective to VFA-147.