The last of the "Fighting Marlins" of Patrol Squadron 40 will come home from the Persian Gulf to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station on Friday, Navy officials said Tuesday.
Members of the squadron first started returning to Oak Harbor from their six-month deployment Dec. 4, said Tony Popp, spokesman for the station.
Navy officials haven’t said when the squadron’s last P-3C Orion will touch down in Oak Harbor.
Although the squadron’s final plane was scheduled to come home Monday, officials said unexpected maintenance delays in the delivery of a critical component meant the aircrew’s deployment was extended a few more days.
VP-40 is one of three maritime patrol squadrons at Whidbey. The squadron has roughly 400 air crew, maintenance and support personnel. The P-3C Orion is a four-engine turbo-prop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft and usually carries a crew of 11.
Aircraft from the Fighting Marlins logged more than 4,700 flight hours and flew more than 850 sorties, some under hostile fire, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
The squadron supplied U.S. and coalition troops with real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information from flights over Afghanistan and Iraq.
While in the gulf, the Fighting Marlins kept watch over the gulf for aircraft carrier battle groups and assisted in search-and-rescue operations and medical evacuations.
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