WHIDBEY ISLAND — Gov. Jay Inslee ordered flags flown at half-staff at state offices on Thursday in honor of the two Navy pilots from Whidbey Island who died in a crash last month.
On Oct. 15, Lt. Serena “Dug” Wileman, 31, and Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay “Miley” Evans, 31, crashed in a Boeing-made EA-18G Growler from Electronic Attack Squadron 130 in remote, steep and heavily wooded terrain about 30 miles west of Yakima. The squadron, based at the station north of Oak Harbor, is known as the “Zappers.”
A procession on Monday greeted Wileman as her remains journeyed to the Wallin-Stucky Funeral Home in Oak Harbor. She was returning from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, home of the U.S. military’s largest mortuary.
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Evans was set to return to Anacortes this week. Her family asked for her arrival to be private, according to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.
Evans and Wileman had recently returned from a 9-month deployment with their squadron aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Flags were set to remain at half-staff at state agency facilities until close of business or sunset Thursday.
“I am deeply saddened by the deaths of LCDR Lyndsay Evans, 31, and Lt. Serena Wileman, 31, and direct that Washington state and United States flags at all state agency facilities be lowered to half-staff in their memory on Thursday, November 7, 2024,” Inslee wrote in a memo Wednesday.
Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; X: @GoldsteinStreet.
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