Patrol Squadron 46 and its 300 sailors will start returning to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station this week after a six-month deployment in Misawa and Kadena, Japan.
The first of five P-3C Orions from VP-46 is scheduled to fly into Oak Harbor on Friday, said Kim Martin, spokeswoman for Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. The P-3C Orion is a four-engine turboprop anti-submarine and surveillance aircraft.
The remaining aircraft and their crews will come home Saturday, Monday and Dec. 9.
The airlift with the squadron’s maintenance, administrative and other personnel will come home early Sunday.
The squadron, nicknamed the “Grey Knights,” deployed in May to the Navy’s Seventh Fleet theater of operations in the western Pacific and Indian oceans.
During the early part of the squadron’s deployment, VP-46 was sent to Singapore for a series of military exercises. The training included operations with naval and air forces from Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
The Grey Knights also conducted search-and-rescue operations in Micronesia and flew maritime protection patrols for Japan during the deployment. VP-46 was tapped to escort the strike groups for the aircraft carriers USS Kitty Hawk and USS John C. Stennis in the western Pacific Ocean.
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