By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tucker M. Yates, Navy Public Affairs Support Element West, Det. Northwest
OAK HARBOR, Wash. (NNS) -- A Navy EA-6B Prowler from Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 129 made its final flight from Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island in preparation for retirement July 20.
The flight of Prowler 907 terminated upon arrival at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., where the 309th Aerospace and Maintenance Regeneration Group will begin the process of preparing the aircraft for reclamation and preservation.
"It's fitting that we mark this day of taking this aircraft to the "boneyard," but Prowlers still have quite a bit more work to do for the nation," said Capt. Tom Slais, deputy commodore of Electronic Attack Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet. "[The EA-6B] is carrying the lion's share of the load for electronic attack in the U.S. military."
Prowler 907 began service August of 1975 and attained more than 11,000 hours of flight time, with more than 18,000 landings in nearly 34 years of active duty. In total, upon departure from NAS Whidbey Island, the aircraft amassed 7,019 field carrier landing practice landings, 9,069 field landings, 1,651 catapults, 1,656 ship arrested landings and 1,706 total arrested landings, reaching an average 147 catapults and 152 arrestments per 1,000 hours.
One of the former plane captains of Prowler 907, Aviation Structural Mechanic 3rd Class Donnavin Brown, formerly of Electronic Attack Squadron 129, who now works for L-3 Communications Corporation on NAS Whidbey Island, was granted the privilege of fulfilling his prior role one more time to send the jet on its way. Brown was plane captain from August to December 2008.
"It's sad that my aircraft was the first to go to the boneyard, but I couldn't have asked for anything better," said Brown. "I was glad that I got to do this."
As the Navy transitions away from the EA-6B toward the EA-18G Growler more Prowlers will continue to be removed from active service, but the aircraft still provides substantial warfighter capability and will remain a valuable asset for the remainder of its lifespan.
"The thing about this is that it's 2009, and we're currently scheduled to fly this aircraft until 2013 so we still have [a few] years of flying EA-6Bs out of Whidbey Island right now, and the Marines will be flying them until 2019. We still have a lot more work to do with this aircraft," said Slais.