After completing his graduate work , Cassada commissioned as a naval officer in 2000 . He completed flight training in 2001 , and became a P-3 Orion pilot in VP-8 at NAS Brunswick in 2002 . Cassada deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom , and flew in the humanitarian Operation Unified Assistance after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami . In 2006 , he graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School , and served as a P-3 Orion and P-8 Poseidon test pilot at NAS Patuxent River . Cassada served as the P-8A Airworthiness Project Officer , and was a T-38 Talon and T-6 Texan instructor test pilot . In 2011 , he worked for the Defense Contract Management Agency at Boeing in Seattle , Washington , where he oversaw operations and contracts for the P-8 Poseidon , KC-46 Pegasus , E-3 Sentry , and the US Marine Corps UAV programs . Outside of the military , he founded Quantum Opus , a superconducting instrument manufacture , with two of his classmates from Albion College
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
Josh A. Cassada