For jets, a final homecoming

OAK HARBOR -- Four Navy jets swooped home Thursday morning, flying in an uncommonly tight formation over a cloudy Whidbey Island. Their pilots and crew were coming home after seven long months flying the unfriendly skies of Afghanistan.

Waiting wives, girlfriends, expectant mothers and one new baby filled the reunion with big hugs and long kisses.

Despite the obvious gaiety at the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, however, some sadness lingered.

The jets themselves were going away.

After almost 40 years of jamming enemy radar with the pug-nosed EA-6B Prowlers, the U.S. Navy is switching radar-jamming duties to what is essentially a fighter jet: the sleek Boeing EA-18G Growler, a model based on the needle-nosed F-18 fighter.

The returning VAQ-141 "Shadowhawks" are the second Navy squadron making the switch.

"It is bittersweet," said Lt. Ryan Mattson, a pilot who flew 40 missions on this deployment. "Even with the newer guys -- that's all they've flown."

After nine months of training, the squadron should return to the air next year in new Growlers. Another Whidbey Island-based squadron started flying Growlers in 2008.

The new plane is faster, includes the latest technology and requires less maintenance, officials said. It also needs only two aviators, instead of the four required by the Prowler. The Navy plans to spend an estimated $5.7 billion to build 68 of the Growlers by 2013.

The change starts now, though, for the Shadowhawk pilots who have spent their careers in the cockpits of the Prowlers.

"I think you'll naturally miss it, but it is a great opportunity," said Cmdr. Karl Pugh, executive officer of the 200-person squadron. "It is great for the guys, the squadron and for Whidbey."

The best thing for Whidbey on Thursday, though, at least according to the Navy families, was the return of the Shadowhawk squadron.

Wives suffered surgeries, flooding homes and any number of problems while their husbands were gone. Some families now face big changes, and big decisions.

Krista Fossum, 28, found out she was pregnant just a week after her husband Lt. Karl Fossum shipped off.

"We are new to the Navy," she said Thursday. "I did not know the protocol."

The short answer? Call. She did, and he was ecstatic.

Returning home to his growing family made Thursday "the best day of my life," Lt. Fossum said, his arm draped around his wife.

He had no regrets about saying goodbye to his Prowler.

"We're moving on to bigger and better things," he said.

Then he paused to rub Krista's belly. "And so are we."

Chris Fyall: 425-339-3447, cfyall@heraldnet.com.