Months of hard work have paid off for 21-year-old Justin Hodges at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla. Hodges, a 2006 graduate of Ashe County High School, was recently named the Junior Sailor of the Quarter at the base.

Hodges cited good old-fashioned dedication as the reason he was chosen out of approximately 1,000 other sailors for the award.

“I put in a lot of time here,” said Hodges. “I’m an electronic technician, so we basically maintain the air field.” He noted that he frequently goes to work “on off days when equipment goes down. I’m usually one of the first guys they call. I’ve put in a lot of extra hours, done some volunteer work. I’ve done what I could to get to this point.”

Hodges said that one E-4 sailor (an enlisted petty officer) was chosen from each department at the air station, and he was picked after all the candidates were evaluated. He is also now a candidate for Regional Junior Sailor of the Quarter and the Junior Sailor of the Year awards for both the base and the region.

Hodges earned the award less than two years into his military career. He attended Appalachian State University for his first year out of high school. But “didn’t really have the money to continue going to school,” so he figured he could “join the military and let them pay for school eventually.”

Hodges also cited his father, who was in the Navy, and his brother, who is in the Army, as inspirations for joining the Navy.

“It really appealed to me,” he said. “It was going to be a steady job. I just figured I would take that leap, [and] I thought it would be a good way to serve.”

Hodges spent his first year stationed north of Chicago in Great Lakes, Ill., before being transferred to Florida. He has yet to serve on a ship, but noted that he has “met a lot of guys and made a lot of friends. I’m just enjoying my time.”

Hodges was also given another big honor recently when he was chosen as one of 80 people from the air station to stand behind President Barack Obama during a speech on Monday, Oct. 26. Hodges stood in the third row behind the president.

“It was pretty crazy,” he said. “I never thought I would get to be that close to a president. No one in my family had ever been that close. The whole experience was incredible.” He later noted that it “meant a lot” because “not many people get to do that.”

When not working extra hours at the air station, Hodges said he enjoys spending time with his wife, Amanda, and their year-and-a-half old daughter, Mia. They enjoy visiting the zoo and the beach, which is only a 30-minute drive away.

As for the future, Hodges hopes to get stationed on a ship so he can “get to go all over the world.” He currently has four more years on his enlistment, at which point he will either re-enlist or return to college, “probably back to Appalachian,” he said. “I’d want to move back close to home.”