Kenneth DeRoche lives in Methuen, Massachusetts, and currently serves as a service manager for CVI, a position he’s held since 2019. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice from the University of Massachusetts, following which he served for ten years as a police officer for the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. Before attending college, Kenneth DeRoche served with the United States Navy as an aviation electrician and plane captain for the F/A-18C fighter aircraft.
One of the most demanding of all assignments on a US Navy aircraft carrier, a plane captain is responsible for overseeing the maintenance of all an aircraft’s operating systems and readiness, as well as checking fluid levels, cockpit conditions and ensuring that all bolts and fasteners are secure and that there are no foreign objects on the plane that could inhibit its performance.
Although plane captains generally aren’t qualified experts on any of the plane’s many complex systems, they’re highly trained and capable of identifying problems and communicating them to the electricians, mechanics, and other experts who perform the actual tasks. Many plane captains spend 12 to 18 hours per day working on their planes.
The plane captain is the central, most reliable source of information about an aircraft’s mission readiness, and the one on whom the pilot relies for the most accurate assessment. The plane captain coordinates pre-flight checks with the pilot and is the one person who gives the pilot the final approval to take off. Two names are stenciled on the aircraft’s body – the pilot’s and the plane captain’s.
Plane captains are often among a carrier’s most junior enlisted personnel, chosen for their aptitude, character, and skills by their commanders and trained intensely for at least three months before assuming their duties. They serve as plane captains for up to a year or more before moving into a more specialized occupation, in the process accumulating an encyclopedic knowledge of the aircraft as well as the squadron’s operation.
