When Zachary Sessa joined the Marine Corps, he signed a ground contract, paving the way for a career in the infantry. But as fate would have it, an opportunity came to switch to the high-demand fighter aviation field — giving him the chance to be a pilot like his father and grandfather. And that was where he’d end up making history.
Sessa, 33, from Butler, Pennsylvania, was named Military Times’ Marine of the Year for his distinguished leadership and performance during 2024 air strikes on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen from the Red Sea in what would be the first strike mission for his airframe. It’s the latest in a series of prestigious recognitions; Sessa was also named Marine Corps Aviator of the Year by the Corps in April.
Out of flight training, Sessa had been selected to fly the F-35C, the Navy’s carrier-capable variant of the Joint Strike Fighter. The rare assignment for a Marine officer allowed Sessa, early in his career, to participate in one of the aircraft’s first operational deployments as the Navy incorporated F-35Cs into its carrier air wings.
“It was fun to be at the leading edge of that,” he recalled.
In nearly a decade as a Marine Corps aviator, Sessa had served as a flight instructor in Kingsville, Texas, and completed a routine deployment with the F-35C to the Western Pacific. His second deployment in 2024 was initially expected to be another WestPac cruise, but the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, kicked off a wave of conflict in the Middle East, and Sessa’s squadron, VFMA-314, got word that they’d be headed to U.S. 5th Fleet instead.
Sessa, who served as the first Marine Corps F-35C weapons and tactics instructor, or WTI, during the deployment, had participated in defensive sorties earlier in the deployment. But in early November, he was briefed on a new mission: to strike Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen, a response to rebel attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It would be the F-35C’s first-ever strike mission.
Another WTI was mission commander for the first night of sorties on Nov. 9; Sessa commanded the second and final night of strikes on Nov. 10. Thanks to aggressive preparation and planning that took advantage of the F-35C’s stealthy profile and significant internal fuel capacity for long-range missions, the strikes went off without a hitch, Sessa recalled. Locked on the mission, Sessa and fellow squadron members saved their celebrations until they were safely back on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. And they didn’t celebrate alone.
“Watching the ordnance Marines all bending down to look up into the weapon bays to see that all the bombs were gone, and then the excitement there – all, you know, oh my gosh – that was honestly one of the most exciting parts of the mission," Sessa said. “Because that’s their Super Bowl.”
Sessa, now an F-35 instructor pilot in Yuma, Arizona, emphasized that his squadron, which was also honored as Marine Fighter Attack Squadron of the Year, deserved a full share of the credit for the airstrikes, as did the enablers who contributed to the readiness of aircraft and weapons.
“Everyone was prepared to go execute,” he said. “They all just contributed to squadron success.”
