Veterans Day is an opportunity to honor the service and sacrifice of our country’s armed forces. And at Aireon, we are proud to highlight the military service careers of some of our colleagues and share valuable lessons learned from that service.
Aireon Reliability Engineer Mario Yanez served from 2009 to 2014 in the U.S. Marine Corps, as a technician of avionics countermeasure systems, deploying twice as part of the 11th and 13th Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU). Since transitioning from the military, Yanez said he carries many of the values from his military career into his engineering work at Aireon.
Mario Yanez, USS Making Island, Java Sea, LHD 8, 2011
“In the fleet, our number one priority (at a unit level) is maintaining mission readiness. For the Aviation Combat Element (ACE), this translates directly to the number of aircraft ready to engage in flight operations at a moment’s notice. To safely meet these high availability service requirements, all Marine squadrons must adhere to a standard rigorous maintenance program that directs maintenance policies, procedures, and responsibilities at all levels of maintenance throughout naval aviation,” Yanez said.
That mentality translated very closely to the corporate mission and work at Aireon, Yanez said. “At Aireon, we support a system that delivers a safety-of-life service. Therefore, our approach to maintenance operations must ensure service continuity for our customers. Every action we make takes into consideration the fact that there are lives on every target we track.,” Yanez said.
Mario Yanez, Pictured at Aireon HQ in McLean, VA, 2022
Since joining Aireon in 2018, Yanez said he consistently uses the technical expertise, aviation knowledge, and his military work ethic gained required in his dedicated years of service, which translates into providing reliable, trusted data products to Aireon’s customers. “We keep the lights on for air traffic controllers. Therefore, our approach to maintenance operations must ensure the highest bar of service continuity for our customers.”
For Yanez, Veterans Day provides a moment of reflection to look back and remember. “Veterans Day reminds me of what it felt like to return from a long deployment and see my family and friends. Being able to do all the things I dreamed about for months, even the most ordinary and simple ones. Veterans Day is a day to recognize the sacrifice made by those that accepted personal responsibility for this country,” he said.
