By RON NEWBERRY

As the first pilot to deliver the initial EA-6B Prowler to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in 1971, Fred Wilmot is as much a part of the jet’s history and lore as anyone alive.

So when it came time to plan a commemoration for the Navy’s first electronic attack aircraft 44 years later, Wilmot didn’t hesitate to get involved.

At 77, retired and living in Oak Harbor, Wilmot had the time, connections and know-how to help set up a celebration suitable for the occasion.

A friend of Wilmot’s, however, had bigger plans for the former Navy pilot.

At an Oak Harbor Navy League luncheon in February, Joe Farina suggested how fitting the event would be if Wilmot could be a crew member in the Prowler’s final operational flight out of NAS Whidbey.

Wilmot didn’t get his hopes up.

“I thought it was a great idea,” Wilmot said, “but I had kind of guarded optimism that they would buy into that because there are an awful lot of hoops to jump through.”

Four months later, Wilmot squeezed into a flight suit he hadn’t worn in nearly four decades and set out on the Prowler’s final historic flight.

He had to settle for a backseat ride, but had no complaints, as he was part of a four-member crew that made two flyovers during the Prowler Sunset celebration and base open house attended by about 4,000 at Ault Field June 27.

After the aircraft came in for a landing to let Wilmot out, it flew away bound for NAS Point Mugu in Oxnard, Calif., marking the end of an era for the Prowler with the Navy.

The Prowler will continue to be flown by the Marine Corps but not out of Whidbey.

Wilmot walked away, beaming on the inside but trying to maintain his composure on the outside.

At times, he failed.

“He’s just over the moon,” said Vicki Wilmot, who’ll celebrate her 52nd wedding anniversary with her husband in August.

“It was kind of a flashback 37 years,” Fred Wilmot said.

A flashback to a time that he considered to be the highlight of his naval career, serving as commanding officer of the VAQ-135 Black Ravens.

Wilmot spent 28 years as a Navy pilot, including his stint testing the Prowler on the east coast.

In January of 1971, after accumulating 300 flight hours in the newly developed aircraft, he was the logical choice to deliver the first Prowler to NAS Whidbey by flying cross-country from the Grumman manufacturing site in Calverton, N.Y., to Oak Harbor.

Forty-four years later, he was poetically part of the last operational flight with the Navy.

Although he hadn’t flown in a Prowler since 1978, he said it was sort of like riding a bike, though this time he wasn’t at the controls.

He had never flown in the backseat of a Prowler before.

“The toughest part was getting hooked into the seat,” Wilmot said. “It had been 37 years.”

Wilmot was assisted by members of the VAQ-134 Garudas, the squadron involved in the final flight.

About three hours before the noon flight, they issued him flight gear, including a survival vest and g-suit, and hung him from straps in a torso harness to make sure the straps were tight in the event of an ejection.

“It’s something they didn’t used to do,” Wilmot said.

Wilmot still looked the part.

“I still had my flight suit from back when I was a skipper, which I wore,” he said.

Did it fit?

“It was a little snug, but it still fit,” he said.

Wilmot said the experience was exhilarating and he felt honored to be included in such an historic event.

It all came about from an idea by Farina, logistics manager with Northrop Grumman, which designed and built the Prowler.

The Navy approved.

“Everybody up the chain (of command) liked the idea,” Wilmot said. “It had to be pretty high up in the Navy chain to get approval to do it. I had to get a flight physical.”

The final flight was among the crowning moments of the three-day Prowler Sunset festivities, which were sponsored by the Navy and Northrop Grumman and organized and produced by the Whidbey Roost Chapter of the Association of Old Crows with assistance from the Navy League.

The event marked the end of one era and the continuation of another as the Prowler has been replaced by the EA-18G Growler.

“It was a very special day,” Vicki Wilmot said. “The real thrill was our grandchildren got to see this.

“We had a lot of friends and family here. I just don’t have enough adjectives.”