HORTON (KSNT) - Growing up in a small Kansas town, Jamie Hanrahan would travel from sea to shining sea through a nearly three-decade-long career with the Navy. Originally from Muscotah, Kansas, a town with a population of 155 as of the 2020 census, Hanrahan was looking for opportunities outside of his hometown. “The Navy recruiter came and said hey you can get to travel, we’ll send you to school and all these things, learn skills for when you get out of the Navy," Hanrahan said. "I thought great, that’s what I want to do.”   Set for a path in aviation; electrician work quickly resonated with him. “As an Electricians Mate, one thing we did was work on the lighting systems, the indicator systems, autopilot - those kind of things," Hanrahan said. "Being frontline working on the aircraft right there, what they call organization level, it had to be quick. If the airplane said hey, we’re going to launch it at 8 o'clock and you’re not there at 5 till 8 and something breaks, your team has got to get together and get that thing fixed and get it launched right, to meet the mission.”     Managing timing effectively was everything for Hanrahan and his unit. “Once the launch was complete then they’d have what they call recovery, all the planes landed," he said. "Right after recovery then you said hey that plane now has to be fueled and has to be fixed, anything that might have been broken, then get ready for the next launch.”        Veteran Salute: Literally paving the way forward in Vietnam That intense turnaround didn't bother Hanrahan in the slightest. Sticking with the Navy for 26 years, he would alternate between the electrician role and serving as an instructor.    “You got to teach the next generation, these young Sailors not only teach them how to fix a plane, but how to be a Sailor," Hanrahan said. "This is what it’s going to be like for their career, and leave an impact on them so that they would understand the Military.”    Even with that sense of accomplishment through educating the next generation, traveling all around the globe, and being promoted to Chief in his final years - there's one moment from his service that especially stands out to him all these decades later. “If someone ever asked me what’s the best thing the Navy did for me, I would say they gave me the opportunity to meet my wife," he said. "That’s the best thing of all of it.”   We'll hear more about how Jamie and Lori, a fellow Northeast Kansan and Navy Veteran, met through their military service on next week's Vet Salute. For more Veteran Salute, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.