Combat aircraft

and it’s attracted a concentration of US

Navy activities. ‘On that cruise, we didn’t

 y any overland missions’, says Holdiman.

‘Everything  own was maritime roles.

We  ew standard ULT [unit-level

training]  ights and the more serious

DCA [defensive counter-air] missions to

protect the carrier from any potential

intruders. When  ying the DCA missions,

we would be directed to CAP [combat air

patrol] orbit locations’.

While the majority of these missions

were rather uneventful, Holdiman adds:

‘There were a few interactions with

foreign aircraft. The cruise was fairly

uneventful and repetitive in nature, that

being much better than the alternative!

Typically, I only  ew two to three times

per week, due to my busy [operations]

schedule. It proved to be a very

successful deployment, and was quite a

change from the other types of Fifth Fleet

deployments we’ve had previously. For

those, we would usually only transition

through the Seventh Fleet area, so it

was a nice change of pace from the

Middle East.’

Above: VFA-97’s

‘CAG-bird’ in full

color markings.

These are now

being toned down

across the fl eet

as the result of

a new directive.

Ted Carlson/

Fotodynamics

Above left: The

USS John C.

Stennis (CVN 74)

during its cruise

with CVW-9 in

2016. US Navy/
      MCS1C Bryan
      Niegel
      Below: The fi rst
      F-35Cs of VFA-125
      arrived at Lemoore
      in January 2017.
      US Navy/MCS3C
      Zachary Eshleman

FORCE REPORT // WEST COAST STRIKE FIGHTERS

28 March 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

24-29 Lemoore C.indd 28 19/01/2018 11:10