COVERING WHIDBEY ISLAND’S NAVAL AIR STATION COMMUNITY
CROSSWIND Whidbey
VOLUME 1, NO. 12 | 17 JUNE 2011
www.whidbeycrosswind.com
The Garudas come home at last
Olympic View Elementary authors hold book signing By MELANIE HAMMONS Whidbey Crosswind
They’re becoming authors at younger and younger ages these days – make that 8 or 9 years of age, to be precise. Olympic View Elementary School thirdgraders held a book-signing ceremony Tuesday for their published book “Clouds – Imagination in the sky.” Make no mistake – this is a real, bona-
SEE BOOK| PAGE 2
THIS EDITION Lt. Charles Fatora holds his 7-week-old son, Brendan, for the first time as he and his wife, Janice, walk from the tarmac following the homecoming of VAQ-134 at NAS Whidbey Island Tuesday. JUSTIN BURNETT/WHIDBEY NEWS-TIMES
VAQ 134 returns to NAS Whidbey The Garudas complete their first carrier deployment in 16 years
F
or the first time in seven months, the men and women of Electronic Attack Squadron 134 are home. The EA-6B Prowler Squadron’s jets arrived at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island early Tuesday afternoon, amid cheers and tears from family members waiting anxiously to greet the returning sailors. Maintenance
and support personnel were scheduled to return Wednesday. When the Garudas left Whidbey Island last November under the leadership of Cmdr. Lee Jackson, the squadron was about to embark on its first carrierbased deployment in 16 years, heading to San Diego to join Carrier Air Wing 17 on board the USS Carl Vinson
(CVN 70). VAQ-134 had been deploying as an expeditionary squadron to a land base in Afghanistan since 2004, so life on board ship presented new challenges for the 180 officers and enlisted members of the Garudas. Once CVW 17 commenced combat operations in February, however, the mission for VAQ-134 was a familiar one — providing support to coalition forces engaged in Operation Enduring Freedom. The squadron had
an aggressive schedule in support of ground troops, which resulted in a 47 percent increase in electronic attack coverage compared to previous air wings. The Garudas maintained a 96 percent completion rate of of combat sorties and conducted more than 156 missions. An advantage to a carrier deployment versus being an expeditionary unit, is the abil-
SEE GARUDAS | PAGE 6
For Pets’ Sake: Litter Box Blues .....................pg. 2 Meet graduates of Columbia College-Whidbey.....pg. 3 Veterans of Foreign Wars retire Old Glory.......pg. 7 Pilots reunite to tell their story ......................pg. 8