Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Josh Cote | 210430-N-UJ449-1008 NAVAL AIR STATION SIGONELLA, Italy (Apr. 30, 2020) Electronics...... read more read more
When it comes to finding a job, not everyone makes a living doing what they actually enjoy. Fortunately, Electronics Technician 2nd Class Christian Gordon-Perkins from Los Angeles, was able to strike that balance.
Gordon-Perkins is assigned to Commander, Task Force 67 (CTF-67), one of our 37 tenant commands here in Sigonella.
CTF 67’s mission is to provide professional and relevant support to U.S. Sixth Fleet, Naval Forces Europe, Naval Forces Africa, NATO and unified commanders in order to strengthen enduring and emerging partnerships and maintain our nation’s supremacy at sea.
Within CTF 67, Gordon-Perkins works for the N6, or communications, department where he helps process the information gathered by the rotationally deployed P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol aircraft.
“We deal with mission material,” said Gordon-Perkins. “The planes go out and do their missions, then they bring the information back and we extract what they collected. The main focus of our job is to extract information, but the gear is obviously not always 100 percent so fixing and troubleshooting the gear, we really get to work hands on with the equipment.”
He continued, “My favorite part about my job is getting to work with technology. I joined the Navy to do that type of work. I love being able to work with electronics.”
Not only does Gordon-Perkins enjoy his job, he is also good at it.
“ET2 Gordon-Perkins is an irreplaceable asset at CTF 67, stemming from his vast knowledge in the ET rating and bringing new innovative ideas to the team to fix complex problems,” said Chief Information Systems Technician Kimmothy Curtis,
departmental leading chief petty officer.
On top of just doing his regular daily work, Gordon-Perkins also holds several collateral duties for his command. Soon he will be fully qualified as an Assistant Command Fitness Leader as well as a fire warden for his command. He is also a work center supervisor along with being the Assistant Lead Petty Officer.
For Gordon-Perkins, the decision to join the Navy was inspired by a family member.
“I originally joined the Navy because of my cousin,” said Gordon-Perkins. “He was the only person in my family to join the military, and he came home one day and was telling me about it and it sounded really interesting to me. Before that I had always wanted to join. It looked really awesome to be able to serve your country so I joined based on that.”
As of November, Gordon-Perkins will have been in the Navy for eight years. Before being stationed onboard Naval Air Station Sigonella, he was assigned to USS Comstock (LSD 45), home ported in San Diego for four and half years.
Coming from a ship to shore duty can be a big change in the type of work that you are used to doing in your daily routine.
“Working here is completely different from the work I did on the ship,” Gordon-Perkins. “On the ship I worked with combat systems and worked with radar, and here I work with what they call the media gear.”
Although Gordon-Perkins works hard, he also takes advantage of his time off here on the island.
“When I am not at work I enjoy hanging out with my family,” he said. “I like to work out, play video games and work on my car. I do what my wife wants to do. She is more of an outdoorsy person than I am.”
| Date Taken: | 05.07.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 05.26.2021 05:04 |
| Story ID: | 396095 |
| Location: | SIGONELLA, IT |
| Hometown: | LOS ANGELES, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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