A Naval Aviator’s Journey

From George Fox engineering major to Navy pilot, Allison Moss has found purpose – and community – in serving others By Jaime Handley

Allison Moss’s (B15) path to the Navy started in the seventh grade when she watched a YouTube video showing fighter pilots landing on an aircraft carrier in rough seas. She turned to her parents and exclaimed, “I want to do that!”

Years later, after completing a degree in engineering from George Fox, that dream of becoming a naval aviator would start to become a reality. But it wouldn’t be easy.

A New Mission

From the time Moss saw that YouTube video to her eventual training at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, she felt certain that flying fighter jets was her path – all of her energy and resources were focused on that goal.

“I had been so scope-locked on being a Navy jet pilot that I never paid attention to anything else around me,” she says. “Based on that career trajectory, I had made most of my decisions – from education and lifestyle to my very personality. That was the only option.”

Then, in an instant, her plans had to change. Moss missed the minimum score required to qualify for jet flight training by less than a point and was instead assigned to flying helicopters. She was devastated.

In that heartache, she began to see how God had been weaving her story from the beginning. “I remember driving my Jeep home and having an epiphany: This opens up new doors I thought were closed to me,” she says.

One of those newly opened doors was the opportunity to start a family. As a jet pilot, Moss knew that her career options might be limited if she wanted to have children. At the time, pregnant women faced significant restrictions in ejection seat aircraft, but there were fewer restrictions on helicopter pilots.

“I was on this drive, backpedaling years of who I had made myself into for this role that was now unavailable to me,” she recalls. “That was a huge realization. I began to see my future differently.”

Being Known

In that moment of reorientation, Moss’s community showed up for her in tangible ways. Her best friend, a fellow helicopter pilot, hyped the amazing things she could do with this new aircraft assignment. Meanwhile, classmates in the George Fox engineering program shared stories of their own career changes – one who even made the transition from an engineering career to working with a seminary in Ukraine.

The support was nothing new to Moss, who experienced the Be Known promise throughout her time at George Fox. “It sounds like a cliche, but it was true,” she says. “My professors knew me by name. They would ask me questions like, ‘How was that exam?’ or ‘How was your time at home with the sheep this weekend?’ knowing that I grew up in a ranching family in Tumalo, Oregon.”

The experience left a lasting impression. “I even find myself using that tagline now as a department head, leading people and mentoring junior sailors,” she says.

Throughout the ups and downs of her career trajectory, staying connected with her George Fox classmates has helped keep this pilot’s feet planted firmly on the ground.

“We’re such a mixed bag of people, but we support each other,” she says. “When I’m home for Christmas, they drive over the mountain just to have lunch. Or I’ll get a random text for my mailing address or to update me on life events.”

Life After Service

Today, Moss is working on her shore tour in Maryland – a period of duty in which sailors work at a non-deploying command – serving as the safety officer at the rotary-wing developmental test squadron. She is part of the aviation test community, working with various engineers to ensure the helicopter squadron is mission-ready.

“Every single test team has a project officer who’s often a pilot and then a project engineer, which is a fusion of my skill sets,” she explains.

As Moss considers life after the Navy, she desires to continue serving others. “Post-Navy, I want to go home and fly firefighting and search and rescue aircraft in my Oregon community,” she says. “I want to take these skills and this passion back to my home state.”

That call to know and serve others has been a constant theme in Moss’s life.

“The concept I live by is that God knows us at our best and worst, and if we can simply love the people around us like God loves us, then we are doing something right,” she says. “That’s the base goal. That’s the mission.”