WHIDBEY ISLAND STATION, Wash. — A homecoming for United States Navy sailors and aviators who served a historic nine-month deployment in the Red Sea happened Saturday in Whidbey Island.
Their mission was to protect shipping lanes from a terrorist group – specifically Houthi rebels.
The roar of Growler jets means one thing to mom Kristen Ellsworth and her son.
“It’s pretty surreal because they kept getting extended and we didn’t know when this day was going to happen,” Ellsworth said while waiting for her husband to return from deployment.
“Daddy’s finally going to come home,” her son said.
The men and women of Navy’s VAQ-130, also known as the “zappers” returned to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Saturday.
“International rules of order are being blatantly disregarded by the Houthis,” said Carl Ellsworth, US Navy commander.
Carl Ellsworth and his squadron were deployed aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Eisenhower.
The group was deployed to the Red Sea as Houthi rebels, a terrorist group from Yemen, began attacking commercial ships that were using the maritime passage between Africa and the Middle East.
“One of the core tenants of the United States Navy is protecting the sea lanes for freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce,” Carl Ellsworth said.
A squadron that conducted nearly daily combat missions, more than 700 in all. In that time, they encountered and destroyed anti-ship cruise missiles, enemy aircraft, and hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles – drones – all tools intended to disrupt international shipping.
Attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis escalated following the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
“They only have to be right once," Carl Ellsworth said. "We have to be right all the time when we are defending innocent mariners and when we’re defending the carrier strike group."
Wheels down at Naval Air Station Whidbey marked the end of deployment and the return to loving arms. A chance for this naval aviator to finally, let his guard down.