You just never know who you’re going to run into. Even better, you never know someone’s story until you take time to talk.

A couple weeks ago when VAQ-135 Black Ravens were coming home from deployment, I escorted a journalist from New York Magazine, Stephen Rodrick, to the homecoming ceremony in hangar 8. He had been embarked with the squadron on the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) for the last three weeks of the deployment.

Not unusual, I thought, until he explained that his father had been the commanding officer of the Black Ravens back in the 70s when the squadron first transitioned from the A-3 Skywarrior to the EA-6B Prowler. This deployment was the last VAQ-135 would make flying the Prowler before transitioning to the EA-18G Growler.

That, in itself, is interesting. What was harder to take in was that on Nov. 28, 1979, Rodrick’s father, Cmdr. Peter Thomas Rodrick, 36, and three fellow aircrew went missing and were presumed dead when their aircraft crashed at sea while on a routine flight from the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63). Rodrick was 13.

March 20, thirty-one years later, on a sunny Whidbey Island day, Rodrick stood alongside families and friends watching the jets fly overhead in formation, peel off in the break away and taxi in before cutting the engines. He captured the sights and sounds of a traditional squadron homecoming, scanning the crowd with the video on his “Nano.” Poignant, yes. Important, definitely, because even while he worked to maintain his composure, he knew this experience would bring him a level of closure regarding the loss of his father.

But, it’s not all personal. Rodrick, 44, has had a successful career writing for the New York Magazine, Men’s Journal and the New York Times. He has a master’s degree in political science and journalism from Northwestern University. His current project, being published by Harper Collins, is to write a book about his father, the mishap, the Black Ravens, the Prowler. His embarkation on the Nimitz with the Black Ravens and the trip to NAS Whidbey Island for the homecoming are all part of the in-depth research and development he needs to “get it right.”

While Rodrick still hasn’t gotten a backseat ride in a Prowler, he did come away from his recent “deployment” with a better sense of the day-to-day life of a naval aviator thanks to the Black Ravens who welcomed him into their family. He also has a much better understanding of who his father was, what kind of life he lived and what attracted him to flying in the first place. If all goes as planned the book should come out in 2012.