CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For many high school seniors, career moves and even post-graduation plans are still pretty much a work in progress.
One young man had his career figured out when he graduated in 2016.
Midshipman 1st Class U.S. Navy Tanner Strawbridge is a 2016 graduate of ray high school. In the spring, Strawbridge will graduate from the Naval Academy, and he's then set to go to pilot's school.
"My grandma actually took me to the naval academy campus when I was about ten years old, and I just fell in love with it," Strawbridge said.
Strawbridge is on the Lexington going around speaking with the tourist about the Navy and taking pictures with families to encourage them to keep the Navy in mind as a career choice for their children.
"Getting the word out there giving them information is very powerful, especially in my hometown where I can kind of give back they gave me so much," Strawbridge said.
'We're just absolutely thrilled that he is going to have a career as a naval pilot. My father was a navy man, so it's certainly a tradition and legacy that he's continuing on in our family," father Sean Strawbridge said.
Retired Navy Captain Steve Banta now runs the U.S.S Lexington and was a pilot. Banta flew helicopters just like Strawbridge plans on doing.
"The biggest thing in naval aviation is your reputation they're going to know you right away if you're doing well in ground school and you're doing well in the tests and things they are putting you thru and if you do well when you show up for your training flights and do well in brief immediately you set the tone the instructor pilot is going to teach you to fly," Banta said.
According to Strawbridge, he's ready for the challenge and knows that for the next ten years, his life is going to be tied to the Navy and flying helicopters or even perhaps jets.
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