Deny, Degrade, Deceive, and Destroy," these are the objectives of the crews that flew the EA-6B "Prowler."
The thirty-six-year stretch between the release of the first "Top Gun" movie in 1986, and its sequel in 2022 was an exceptionally busy period for Naval Aviation. The public knows that Navy fighter pilots flew hundreds of thousands of combat sorties and employed millions of pounds of ordnance on enemy targets in the Middle East and elsewhere. What most will not be familiar with are the extensive operations of the EA-6B community during this period and the fact that no Navy fighter went into harm's way without dedicated Electronic Warfare support.
Our job as EA-6B crews was not to make it into the movies. The EA-6B "Prowler" was a very capable Electronic Warfare aircraft flown by both the Navy and the Marine Corps that was designed to "Deny, Degrade, Deceive, or Destroy" the enemy air defense systems that were used to target American, allied, and partner forces. When it came to protecting these strike missions, the aircrew of the EA-6B employed a very capable jamming system that kept our adversaries from responding effectively. When you saw footage of a strike mission on TV, we were there too, but we operated in the background so that our fighter and bomber crews could get to the target, drop their ordnance and return safely.
As the Global War on Terror became an extended period of counter-insurgency operations, the EA-6B community discovered a new role. All of the Navy's carrier-based Prowler squadrons supported the troops from the sea. However, some of us left the carrier and, along with the Marine Corps, began to operate our expeditionary squadrons from air bases across Iraq and Afghanistan. In this role, we utilized a wide range of capabilities that interfered with our adversary's ability to target our troops. While this new obligation meant that the small EA-6B community was stretched to its limit, it was done without complaint. We were saving lives and ensuring that more of the young Americans that had volunteered to serve their nation could return when their job was done.
This memoir isn't just about flying the EA-6B. The stories begin as I enter flight training and include descriptions of life on the carrier, humorous port visits, training detachments, exercises with the other services, and lots of wonderful experiences on liberty. In addition, the book provides accounts of combat actions over Serbia, Kosovo, and Iraq, and includes a unique perspective of land-based EA-6B combat support in Afghanistan
"Cease Buzzer!" is the author's attempt to capture some of his best Naval Aviation "sea stories" before they all fade away.
