Avionics News April 2012 - 46

Meet the

S t a f f
et’s get the important question about Ric Peri answered first: Why doesn’t he have a K in his first name? When I asked him, I was hoping for some charming story to explain the spelling, but no such luck. “I just never had a K in my name,” he said. “I don’t know how it was started or why.” His legal first name is Richard, but he has always been Ric, no K. Since that’s out of the way, you may not know that Peri was born in the greater Los Angeles area. His father was in the Navy, so Peri spent two years of his youth in Japan. After graduating from high school, Peri literally went to a dozen different colleges. Where many students are on the five-year plan for a bachelor’s degree, Peri was on the 20-year plan. “I started college at 18 and finished at 38,” he explained. “I, too, was in the military and would take college courses every time I got transferred until I finally had enough credits to graduate.” That was from EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University with a degree in professional aeronautics. Peri started his military career in 1971, as an Air Force helicopter mechanic. Following school at Sheppard Air Force base in Texas, his first tour was with Detachment 24, 42 Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron at Fairchild Air Force base in Washington. A month later, his unit became the 48 ARRS. In 1973, Peri’s unit began operations under what was called the Military Assistance for Safety and Traffic program. MAST provided helicopter assistance to local communities by transporting accident victims to civilian hospitals – an early President, Government predecessor to today’s commercial helicopter EMS operations. He later and Industry Affairs transferred to the Coast Guard. While with the Coast Guard, Peri was involved with search and rescue missions and was based in areas as diverse as the central oregon Coast; Houston, Texas; Kodiak, Alaska; Sacramento, Calif.; and Clearwater, Fla. He had two helicopter tours and three C-130 tours. He had two tours at a desk, including his last detail on a White House detail, where he worked on environmental issues. Then he retired from the military. “When I retired from the Coast Guard, I had a healthy professional portfolio dealing with environment logistics, safety and maintenance, and I had a good résumé for logistical support of aircraft maintenance,” Peri said. He thought he would become a consultant, but he learned through aviation friends of a position at the National Air Transportation Association, and he was hired. Four years later, he joined the AEA on April 1, 2001. The first spring was a baptism by fire, as Peri simultaneously worked NATA’s convention and AEA’s Convention. “Paula Derks and Jim Coyne, NATA president, got together and decided the transition would be smoother if I worked both conventions,” Peri said. Peri oversees AEA’s Washington, D.C., office and lives in the Maryland suburbs, but he travels to AEA headquar-

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Ric Peri

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Avionics News April 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News April 2012