PKL Celebrates 20 Years
January 17, 2023
This month, PKL Services, Inc. is celebrating 20 years in business! The company was founded on January 16, 2003 by Samuel Flores, Jr., a retired United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel. And, oh how we’ve grown over 20 years!
When PKL started, we had a handful of employees who worked in small “vans” at MCAS Miramar, in San Diego, CA. Over the years, as business expanded and our need for support grew, we moved into an office space in Poway, CA, 10 miles from MCAS Miramar. We later acquired a second building in the same complex, giving us two buildings for our corporate headquarters. And now, in addition to those two buildings, we also have a number of corporate personnel that work remotely around the US, all supporting our global operations.
PKL’s founder, Samuel Flores, Jr.
PKL’s original offices at MCAS Miramar
PKL’s headquarters in Poway, CA
We didn’t just grow in terms of the size of our corporate office and personnel head count, PKL grew substantially as a company with more contracts, more revenue, and more locations around the world.
For a company that started with one small contract and was an SBA 8(a) small business, we quickly acquired more contracts to support the US Government and military. Over the years, PKL has been awarded multiple contracts valued at hundreds of millions of dollars each and our annual revenue has climbed to reach nearly $100 million annually. We graduated from the SBA 8(a) program early and have gone on to mentor multiple other small businesses to help them grow and succeed.
Early contracts for PKL involved simple maintenance but expanded into Phase Repair and Maintenance with the RESET contract across the US and Afghanistan. Then came the Republic of Singapore contract for F-15 maintenance and pilot training and the VMFAT-101 contract for F-18 maintenance. PKL has since expanded many of our contracts to include more operational support and won new contracts in the same areas as well as in logistics, supply chain, training, administrative support, and more.
Various PKL teams over the years
In conjunction with the growth on contracts and our company capabilities, PKL developed a trademarked training program, OmniSpec®, to deliver modern training solutions to organizations in all sectors.
More than the growth itself, PKL is most proud of maintaining our reputation year after year. We have made quality a high priority in all we do and most recently attained the highest certification (AS9110C) of our quality management system in our line of business and continue to receive high quality CPARs (contract performance reviews) and Letters of Appreciation from our customers and the government. Numerous PKL employees have also been presented with prestigious awards and recognition over the years. These have come in a variety of formats but have also included awards usually reserved only for active-duty personnel.
Professionally, PKL has also garnered awards locally and globally. We have been featured around the world in dozens of magazines, articles, publications, tv interviews, tv shows, and even billboards. We’ve been recognized as a Top Workplace in both San Diego, California and Boise, Idaho. The San Diego Chamber of Commerce recognized PKL as the Member of the Year in 2017. The company has been awarded the Top MRO Company in 2021 and 2022. Military.com and Monster.com ranked PKL as the #7 Best Employer for Veterans.
Due, in part, to the unique nature of our business and the skillsets required for employees to complete the work required by our customers, PKL has always hired military veterans. But beyond that, as a company founded by and managed by retired military, PKL continues to focus on a commitment to hiring veterans. We continue to maintain a nearly 90% veteran workforce year after year and intend to maintain that focus on finding veterans for positions at PKL.
We also remain committed to supporting veteran and military focused organizations. Over the years, we have donated to various charitable organizations dedicated to supporting veterans, military personnel, and their families.
And while we look forward to the future and all the upcoming opportunities ahead, it’s also fun to look back at some of the memories and unique experiences our PKL team have shared.
In 2013, our Cherry Point RESET team performed the final Phase inspection on the last UH-1N Huey. The Hueys were being sundowned and the team at HMLA-467 were the last active duty squadron to retire the aircraft.
In 2014, our VMAQT-1 team in Cherry Point celebrated a 7-jet flyover of the EA-6B aircraft. Due to the age of the aircraft, it’s a big deal when the squadron can get them all up in the air at the same time. And, according to our team lead, no other “Prowler” unit had ever achieved a seven-jet flyover.
On our Peace Carvin V contract at Mountain Home AFB, ID, PKL Pilot Michael “Boosh” Neeman reached a phenomenal milestone of 5000 flying hours in F-15 Strike Eagle. On a cold overcast morning on Jan 26, 2022, Boosh took off in a F-15SG aircraft at 0902 on a training mission. When he landed after the 1.5-hour mission he had acquired 5001.3 Strike Eagle hours with 1657 hours in the F-15SG. Boosh started flying here at the 428FS in Jan 2013, and he started flying the F-15E in 1995. He went through the first FTU class at Seymour Johnson, then had flying assignments at RAF Lakenheath, Elmendorf, Nellis, Seymour Johnson, and Eglin. He graduated from USAF Weapons School in 1999 (Class 99AIB) and returned later as an instructor. While on active duty, Boosh flew combat sorties over Iraq, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. As a PKL Instructor pilot for the last 9 years he helped develop and teach the RSAF Fighter Weapons Instructor Course at Mountain Home. Boosh deployed with the 428th to RED FLAGs at Nellis and Alaska, MAPLE FLAG in Cold Lake, FORGING SABREs at Luke, COMBAT ARCHER / COMBAT HAMMER at Tyndall/Eglin/Hill.
Back on 2 January 2009, PKL started a new contract with around 80 employees supporting the Peace Carvin V Maintenance and Support Program in conjunction with the United States Air Force (USAF) at Mountain Home AFB, ID. This was a new program contracted to support the newly acquired F-15SG aircraft of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF). After five months of preparation with the USAF and RSAF, the first two F-15SGs arrived from Boeing on 8 May 2009. Everyone hit the ground running as PKL, RSAF and USAF started the learning curve on the new jets. After numerous hours and two months of training and acceptance, we flew our first sorties on 1 June 2009. After that, our team of contractors has been instrumental in the success of the RSAF flying 29,579 sorties and 4656 flying hours through December 2022. Contractor support led to 23 successful deployments to Arizona, Alaska, Florida, and Canada over the years with the RSAF almost always recognized as the “best” maintenance unit. Over the years PKL has been fortunate to have been selected by the USAF to continue supporting the RSAF and grow to 159 employees. 55 employees remain from the original 80 who started over 13 years ago. Over the past 14 years, we have fostered many friendships working with our Singapore allies and look to create more with our next five-year contract as new and old faces rotate for duty from Singapore. What hasn’t changed in all these years is the professionalism/teamwork of the PKL employees and the friendship we have maintained over the years. A lot of us worked together in the USAF and now on this contract, so we have over 25 years together. We’ve enjoyed many visits from Sam and other PKL execs over the years. What has changed in the 14 years is when we order uniforms now, we seem to order more larges and extra-large for the original employees.
The Saudi upgrade training (UGT) program started in January 2013. PKL trained 3, 5, and 7-level technicians to maintain the F-15SA multi-role fighter aircraft. The initial cadre of 35 employees worked in G-4 and KM-56 under less-than-desirable conditions. Sam was a frequent visitor to KSA during the early years. Over the years, the program grew exponentially from 35 to 216 employees, who helped relocate the training effort to the King Khalid Training Center in June 2017. This state-of-the-art facility is equipped with the latest training aids to train over 2600 technicians in ten years. The Saudi UGT Program has become one of PKL’s most successful contracts.
As a company founded by a US Marine and still helmed by a retired US Marine, the PKL corporate headquarters has celebrated 20 Marine Corps’ birthdays at our offices. Every year, PKL orders a celebratory cake and our personnel gather around for the traditions and cake cutting by sword.
We know there are so many more great memories and experiences over the last 20 years and we thank all PKL employees, past and present, for their contributions and dedication to our customers and each other.