Marine Aviator honored for role in mission against Houthi bases

Launching off of an aircraft carrier at nighttime, having done that a hundred plus times, I don't know if that ever becomes comfortable just based on the massive catapult shot right into a dark abyss that goes from a lit carrier deck to a black hole pretty quickly

I'm Major Zachary Sessa and I'm currently assigned to MOTS-1 as an F-35 instructor

Started flying the F-35 in 2020, went through training with the Navy

and then upon completing that training, I moved down to Miramar to fly with the MFA-314 Black Knights

which I will subsequently deploy with twice with the Black Knights. So we were tasked with executing deliberate strikes in the Houthi-controlled territory of Yemen

on weapon storage facilities. On night one, we sent out a number of aircraft

to execute these strikes. I was mission planning for night two during night one

so we had a solid team of aviators that went out on night one, employed all their weapons, met mission success

and came back to the ship safely. I had the benefit of being able to speak and debrief with the individuals

who flew on the first night, and then take some of those lessons learned and to apply them into our mission on the second night

as we went out and executed additional strikes. I think I had a mental checklist as we flew the sortie

We need to complete each individual task, and the task that we're doing at that moment in time is the most important task

And then it doesn't become important once we're done with it, and now the next task is the most important task

So we launch off the ship. What's the first thing everyone needs to do is they need to get gas

Getting gas airborne at nighttime can be challenging, so we all launch, we join up on a tanker, and we get gas

We fill up our tanks before we go execute the mission. Flying the appropriate strike route to make sure that we were doing everything that Intel had prepared us for

We were mitigating the threat, we were avoiding high threat areas, and we were quickly getting to the target area

So once we arrive at the target area, just making sure everyone appropriately delivers their weapons And this is the part where that mutual trust in a ready room of well aviators comes into play Because I can see what everyone is doing in their cockpit It the trust that everyone is going to employ their weapon the correct way and on the right target

And make sure that we do it the way that the mission objective is met. With all the weapons released onto targets, we now begin the egress portion and we head back to the ship

We didn't find ourselves in any situation where we were threatened. So fortunately the plan went smoothly

It wasn't my accomplishment as an individual. This was the accomplishment of the squadron

So it's really challenging to accept an individual award for something that I played a very small part in

We succeeded in our mission set as a squadron. So ultimately, I would love to see every Marine in VMFA 314

be recognized in the same manner. Next for me is being a MOTS1 F-35 instructor

So I'm still what I would define as a new guy here at MOTS 1

So I have a lot to learn as a weapons school instructor pilot here. Zach has all those qualities that we're looking for

He has unmatched tactical and technical expertise. As an officer, he's an outstanding leader

It didn't take long for me to realize he's in exactly the right place as an instructor here at MOTS

When I showed up at VMFA 314 as a junior captain, I recognized very early on that I was blessed with precise instructors that became my mentors

It kind of brought me up in the squadron. I think that's something that I look back at and I want to resemble

because I know what it was like to have those senior members of my squadron display so much care for my growth as an aviator, as an F-35 pilot

They wanted to see me succeed. And that's what I hope to embody is to carry out that same type of mentorship role

that those individuals provided me. I hope to be that for the junior aviators of the fleet now