The Yellow Jackets of VAQ-138 said farewell to one of their own on Sunday, Oct. 17.

Lt.Cmdr. John Jay “JJ” DeBellis, who served with the Yellow Jackets on two different occasions, recently completed his turnover as the Operations Officer and will soon leave Whidbey for the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

DeBellis began his naval career in the VA community flying the A-6 Intruder. He made two Mediterranean cruises with VA-75 aboard USS Eisenhower before the Intruder was retired from military service.

With the demise of A-6 and the lack of funding for the A-12, this “steely-eyed missile man” had to turn to the Prowler community and learn a new airplane and a new mission. After a brief stint in VAQ-129 where he quickly learned his new trade, then DeBellis joined the Yellow Jackets for the first time. While with VAQ-138 in a Super JO status, he made the Operation Enduring Freedom cruise aboard USS John C. Stennis.

His wealth of knowledge, previous experience over Iraq and sometimes-peculiar sense of humor proved invaluable in getting the Yellow Jackets through the long, painful missions over Afghanistan.

After returning from OEF, it was time for him to move on. With a shortened Super JO tour in VAQ-138 complete, he made the long trek down the hall to VAQ-128 for his department head tour. While with VAQ-128, he flew out of Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and then left on their regular deployment schedule to Japan later that same year.

Unfortunately for JJ and the rest of VAQ-128, the squadron was decommissioned, leaving everyone scrambling for billets. He managed to find a home once again with VAQ-138 where he excelled as Operations Officer.

The Yellow Jacket family will miss him, his wife Karen, and their newborn son John David. His vast experience, both in combat and in dealing with an overwhelming number of emergencies, will be hard to replace. Of course, we will also miss the random “Yo!” and “Do it!”