A Tavares native is currently playing a vital role in supporting the United States Navy’s fighter jet and naval aviation missions in California.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Kellie-Rae Kelly, who graduated from Tavares High School in 2023, serves as an aircrew survival equipmentman assigned to the “Flying Eagles” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 122. Her squadron operates out of Naval Air Station Lemoore, which serves as the central hub for the Navy’s West Coast strike fighter community.
According to a press release issued by the Navy, Kelly joined the military three years ago to travel, establish long-term stability, and secure opportunities for higher education. She attributes her strong drive to protect and serve others to her mother, who spent nearly a decade working in law enforcement.
“My mom was a cop for nine years, and because of that, I always wanted to do something serving people or helping people,” Kelly said in a Navy interview. “I knew I wanted to join the military, and the Navy seemed like the best branch for me. Now I’m a parachute rigger. We have to make sure all of our pilots’ equipment is reliable because their lives are in our hands, so we have to make sure we do everything the right way.”
At NAS Lemoore, Kelly’s broader naval installation houses both Commander Strike Fighter Wing Pacific and Commander Joint Strike Fighter Wing. The base plays host to more than half of the Navy’s entire inventory of F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft and stands as the exclusive naval facility responsible for housing the cutting-edge F-35C Lightning II.
Working within this intensive tactical environment, Kelly considers her top military achievement to be earning her plane captain qualification. The designation required seven months of continuous daily effort, learning complex aviation frameworks from scratch after transitioning from her initial training school.
At her previous command, Kelly achieved a historic milestone by becoming the only parachute rigger to ever successfully earn the qualification, working her way up from basic refueling duties to directly inspecting and launching active fighter jets from the flight line.
“My proudest accomplishment is getting my plane captain qualification as an aircrew survival equipmentman, which means I’m qualified to launch jets from the flight line,” Kelly explained. “At my last command, I was the only parachute rigger to ever receive that qualification. It means a lot to me. It took about seven months of working every day to get it. I came from ‘A’ school to the line shack and had to learn everything from scratch. I worked my way up from servicing the jets and fueling them, up to launching them and inspecting them to make sure everything is good.”
For Kelly, her military journey has served as a powerful chapter for self-discovery while creating a proud family legacy of service. Originally moving to the United States from Jamaica, her accomplishments directly inspired her uncle, John Walker, to follow her path and enlist in the Navy last year.
“Serving in the Navy means being a part of something bigger than myself,” Kelly said. “Coming from Jamaica to here, serving has helped me learn so much about myself and grow as a person. Learning to do all of this is a whole new chapter for me.”
Kelly extended her deepest appreciation to her loved ones back home and abroad for keeping her disciplined and focused, sharing special thanks for her mother, Sasha Walker, her husband, Alex, and her daughter.
Send words of encouragement to Petty Officer Kellie-Rae Kelly and other local service members representing Lake County worldwide in a comment below or through a letter to the editor.