Electronic Warfare in the EA-6B Prowler | Behind the Wings

The EA-6B was the loudest thing on the flight deck. Man, my teeth hurt just thinking about how loud those babies were.

Didn’t realise the EA-6B was a 4 person jet, genuinely surprised. Good interview!

The thing that amazes me is the complex mechanisms that folded the wings on any carrier aircraft. Wonders of engineering!

My dad was a Navy pilot and transitioned from the A-3D to the EA-6B in 1971, he was assigned to VAQ-129 for training and eventually became the CO of VAQ-133 (The Wizards) in 1977. Between the A-3 and EA-6B squadron assignemnts , I spent most of my life as a Navy dependent on Whidbey Island, our entire family loved Whidbey Island. My dad took me out to the base once and I got to fly the EA-6B carrier simulator, what fun. I have a lot of fond memories of my dad's years flying the Prowler and Whidbey Island Wa. Great video.

I feel planes like the Prowler, SparkVark or Growler don't get the attention they deserve. While F117s were dropping warheads on vents, EW planes were wreaking havoc with all the enemy comms and equipment.

I retired from Grumman in 1994, I was honored to be assigned to the EA6B program office on Long Island. My job was in Materials Management primarily coordination of procurement and manufacturing. It was very exciting to be directly in the action of engineering changes, updates and manufacturing. Some of my fondest memories of my Grumman career was being on the Prowler program.

I was a USAF EWO who flew the EF-111 then was assigned to NAS Whidbey Island to fly the EA-6B. Being a Plank Owner in VAQ-128 was one of the highlight of my 20+ year career.some may remember that VA-128 was the West Coast RAG for the Intruder. We flew in combat from either Incirlik AB, Turkey or PSAB, Saudi Arabia for many years. In late 2000 over Northern Iraq we shot many a HARM since Saddam was a bit frisky during that time. I was in one of those flights as ECMO 3 working the reactive HARM mission since the AF HARM shooters were in reset. That day I worked a SAM and we ended up shooting the HARM based on the footballs receivers detection. A couple of weeks later that HARM shot became a confirmed kill.

There was also an EA-6A Electric Intruder, which had a tailfin "football" like the Prowler. Too high workload meant there was a demand for a four-seater.

VAQ-131 plank owner. I was one of the first guys in the Navy to work "I" level maintenance on the ALQ-99. It was a great job as they didn't mess with us much due to the very few people trained to maintain the system. No weekend duty, worked about 3.5 days a week prior to deployment (I worked nights), made it to the Steakhouse every Friday by 10 pm 😜. Worked with a great bunch of guys, excellent technicians and a lot of fun (Motley, King, Lemkuil, Carlson, Maclane to name a few). The ALQ-99 was so new that we had to use blueprints for troubleshooting as the MIMS were not published yet. It was a very big deal during Vietnam as we provided an electronic envelope that protected the other aircraft. Big competition to see who could deploy first, 131 or 132.All of us were orignally assigned to VAQ-129, the training outfit. We only had a couple of old A6's from VA-128 to practice on. I don't remember exactly when we got the first EA6B but it was a nice shiny one. Jim King and I were tasked with placing an ALQ-100 in the aircraft, in the starboard shoulder right behind the cockpit. Never did figure out why we stuck that thing in the new aircraft. It weighed a bunch and it wouldn't quite fit in the opening. Without missing a beat, King grabbed a file and filed down the dzus screw mounting while commenting that "we just made the first modification to the EA6B". Still laughing about that one 52 years later.

Dope, very loud little bird. Shout out VMAQ-4.

I was fortunate enough to follow this aircraft, while it was towed through Denver very early one morning, on its way to the museum.

Still remember I was at Nas oceana and heard our div o talking about the new York city power outage being caused by an nfo in an ea6b hitting the wrong switch

Living less than an hour away, I was thrilled to find that a Prowler was at the museum! I went down there the very next weekend. Was good to touch one again - brought back many memories. It's been a long time for this sailor. AT2 in VAQ-129 and VAQ-135, 1985-1991. Oh yeah, she's loud!

The call sign Fester is well chosen, great video.

Brings back a lot of memories. I used to be an AT. I was in VAQ-129, VAQ-140, VAQ-139, VAQ-128, and 2nd tour in VAQ-129.

Brings back memories. I did two tours with the EA-6B. 72-75 in VAQ-131 and 85-88 in VAQ-132. Makes me feel old that some of the jets I actually worked on are now static displays. Thanks for the great video.

We were in your Museum just last month, spending an most enjoyable 5 hours with your collection and staff (It was an item on my Bucket list that has been crossed off)! I'd love to stroll your Museum and learn more stories from you, Chuck! As a Docent for the National Air and Space Museum for DECADES, on every vacation if there is an Aviation Museum , I'm THERE! We, too have a EA-6B (CAG Bird) in the National Collection. It was the final one in service (with the USMC), retiring in March 2019

Great interview by Curator Chuck. Thanks to you, and to Ethan, and all those who have and are serving in the forces. Best regards from Canada.

This was a very cool interview. Very rare to find the other guys highlighted. Usually we like the gunners fighter pilots. Bombers. But I'm sure they're actually more important for the rest of the pilots!

Nostalgia is real, seeing the old usmc version (i was VMAQ-3 2014-sundown) seeing old pilots and maintainers i knew and still know would love to visit this museum.