Michael James Florant
Aquarius Mission Technician
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
mikeflorant@eudoramail.com

(Born April 3, 1971, Washington, North Carolina)
I entered the US Army on August 15, 1989 and served until August 15, 1995. My occupation was Aircraft Armament and Electrical Repair Technician. I served three years with the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and was deployed to Saudi Arabia/Iraq for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. My next duty station was in Korea for a year with the 8th Army Division.  After that, I was assigned to Fort Bragg, NC as part of the 82nd Airborne Division where I completed my military service.

After completing my military service I relocated to Cocoa Beach, Florida, to work as a commercial shellfish harvester. I learned to scuba dive in June 1995, and did various diving work around the Cape Canaveral area.

I learned about the Aquarius operation in a May 1997 from a newspaper advertisement. The project needed an electrical technician with dive experience. I interviewed and was hired on that month to help with the refurbishment that was being conducted at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, in Fort Pierce, Florida. When Aquarius was deployed in the Florida Keys I relocated to Key Largo, Florida in December 1997.