ASU alum joins next generation of U.S. Naval Aviation Warfighters

Ezra Ristow, an Arizona State University graduate, is serving in the U.S. Navy assigned to Training Squadron 31 where naval aviators learn the skills they need to fly missions around the world.

Ristow joined the Navy three years ago and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from ASU in 2021, a press release explained.

“I was always an adventure seeker growing up,” Ristow stated in the release. “I've also always been involved in team sports and I liked the concept of joining the Navy and seeing the world."

Today, Ristow serves as a student pilot assigned to VT 31, a U.S. Navy advanced flight training squadron located at Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The aviation squadron’s primary mission is to train future naval aviators to fly as well as instill leadership and officer values, Navy officials explained in the release.

Students must complete many phases of flight training to graduate, including aviation preflight indoctrination, primary flight training and advanced flight training.

“Coming from a wrestling background, you are forced to take extreme ownership in your circle,” said Ristow. "I love that in the naval aviation community there is a sense of responsibility we all have to take and hold each accountable."

After graduation, pilots continue their training to learn how to fly a specific aircraft, such as the Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter attack jet, the F-35 Lightning strike fighter jet or the SH-60 Seahawk helicopter. These aircrafts take off from and land on Navy aircraft carriers at sea.

Ristow serves a Navy that operates far forward, around the world and around the clock, promoting the nation's prosperity and security, the release stated. He is grateful to others for helping make a Navy career possible.

“The sacrifices my parents, Donna and Kurt, made for me have allowed me to follow this path I'm on and I'm so grateful,” Ristow stated.