In early February, the Electronic Attack (VAQ) 137 Rooks and members of VAQ-134 Garudas returned from a Carrier Qualification (CQ) Detachment on USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74).

Carrier qualifications consisted of launching and recovering VAQ-137 and VAQ-129 EA-6B Prowlers for both day and night operations. Aviators require several “traps” or recoveries to become current and stay proficient. The maintainers that launch, recover, and repair the EA-6Bs use this time to train new maintenance personnel and qualify them to work on the flight deck.

Detachments of this sort are commonplace in the carrier Navy, but this time the Rooks brought with them select members of the Garudas, typically an expeditionary unit. The Rook plane captains and troubleshooters took 12 counterparts from the Garudas “under their wing” while the Garudas achieved flight deck qualifications. VAQ-134 has been fulfilling the Prowler expeditionary mission for many years but will soon be returning to the life of a “boat” squadron.

For the Rooks, the return to the carrier deck was in preparation of their upcoming deployment this fall, giving them a chance to sharpen their boat skills and practice ship borne operations for the maintenance crews, plane captains and troubleshooters. For their aviators, it was part of the interdeployment training cycle needed to stay proficient at landing jets on the carrier decks.