After four demanding weeks on board USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), the Cougars of Electronic Attack Squadron 139 (VAQ-139) returned home to Whidbey Island from their Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX).

For Carrier Strike Group Seven, Carrier Air Wing 14 (CVW-14) and VAQ-139 it proved to be an arduous, yet successful boat detachment. There were many lessons learned by both new and seasoned Cougars.

COMPTUEX is a two-part exercise of scripted and spontaneous simulations.  It is the last required qualification the strike group must complete to be certified ready for deployment. It typically represents the first time in a training cycle that a carrier strike group operates together as a cohesive team.

The exercise is scenario driven, containing “battle problems” of increasing complexity and difficulty, as well as Blue Water Certification, which allows Reagan and CVW-14 to operate without a divert airfield nearby.

The scenarios were designed to measure the ability of the strike group to act as a coordinated, combat-ready force, and were intended to closely resemble real-life situations the carrier strike group could encounter during deployment.

The first set of challenges the Cougars had to overcome was complacency as the Reagan dealt with maintenance issues a few days after the start of the exercise. Cougar pilots had to re-fly their initial carrier qualification period as it had been a week since their arrival.

“Once you get that groove, you can’t let it loose,” said Lt. Cmdr. David Elias. “We all had to re-cage our brains and press on despite the long lull between flights. I’m proud of all our Cougar pilots for maintaining their focus.”

A week of non-flying on board the carrier would have given any Prowler maintenance department an early Christmas. However, the week off only made the amount of stress on the seasoned Prowler even greater as more flights within the COMPTUEX curriculum were compressed into only three weeks.

“The Cougar maintenance department never stops to amaze me,” said Maintenance Officer Lt. Cmdr. James Carver. “We have young men and women who worked 12-hour days seven days a week to make it all happen.” The Cougar maintenance department was able to achieve the best sortie completion rate VAQ-139 has seen in the past five years during COMPTUEX .

In order to demonstrate the squadron’s combat readiness, the Cougars had to participate in numerous long-range strikes to NAS China Lake, Calif., and NAS Fallon, Nev., as well as a number of surface search, counter-targeting, suppression of enemy air defense and combat search and rescue missions. These missions amounted to an incredible learning experience for their upcoming deployment, and strengthened the cohesion between the air wing, the USS Ronald Reagan and Carrier Strike Group Seven. Long hours of flight planning and two flights a day for each air crew kept the Cougars busy. Nevertheless, it allowed the Cougar junior officers to continue their training towards becoming mission commanders.

“These have been the most impressive junior officers I’ve seen in a long while,” said Lt. Cmdr Jeff Kjenaas. “I’m happy to be taking these guys to combat.”

The clock is ticking as the Prowler and its reign as the venerable workhorse of the electronic attack community comes to a close. The last Prowler deployment for VAQ-139 is on the horizon, but no matter the platform, the Cougars will continue their dominance in using airborne electronic attack defending the United States and the freedom of its allies.