The city of Oak Harbor certainly appreciates the military presence of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, but every once-in-a-while it’s nice to throw a party to show it.

The Oak Harbor Area Council of the Navy League joined forces with Whidbey Island Bank last week to pay tribute to the Scorpions of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 132 in an appreciation event held at the bank’s branch on Bayshore Drive.

The bank was packed with members of the Navy League, members of the bank’s staff, local dignitaries, NAS Whidbey’s commanding officer and the Scorpions themselves. VAQ-132 was the first squadron at NAS Whidbey to transition to the EA-18G Growlers and was the first Growler squadron to deploy to Iraq.

The event was a great opportunity for members of the Scorpions to connect with members of the community.

“As a past Navy spouse, sometimes you get blinders on and you don’t get to meet people from the community,” said Navy League co-president Beth Munns. “But this is what makes you feel like home. Trust me, if you do need a shoulder or to find out where something is, the community is what’s going to help you out.”

“You know our city loves the Navy,” said Bruce Van Tassell, of Whidbey Island Bank. “We couldn’t have it better. We have the best people in the world living here, their families are here. We all care about you and we’ve got people running our city that feel the same way.”

Whether it was the good food, the ambiance or just the spirit of camaraderie, the men and women of VAQ-132 definitely felt welcomed.

Information Systems Technician Third Class Kristina Christian said she was enjoying the experience.

“It makes me feel happy the military gets to participate in an event like this,” she said. “I wish we could go to more. The community is so welcoming.”

Christian, whose father was a Lt. Commander in the Navy, grew up in Hawaii. NAS Whidbey is her second duty station.

“I’ve never seen a community so connected and welcoming to the military,” she said.

“Oak Harbor is very Navy-friendly,” said Aviation Machinist’s Mate First Class Marc Weber, who’s been in the Navy for nine years and at NAS Whidbey for a year. “It’s one of those communities that actually appreciates the military.”

Weber said that appreciation was especially evident when “the mayor shows up and shakes your hand.”

For his part, Mayor Jim Slowik say he was the one who was honored to be there.

“I think these guys have been written about in every paper out there,” said Slowik. “It’s an honor to meet these people. They’re real heroes.”

One of the high points of the evening was when VAQ-132 commanding officer, Cmdr. Jay Matzko, spoke about the squadron’s unexpectedly long deployment.

“Our mission is to do our country’s bidding when we’re told,” Matzko said. “They said ‘Go to Iraq and do good work there,’ so we were in Al Asad, Iraq … and they say ‘you’re gonna do six months in this place.’ Alright, we fall into a routine, things are happening, we’re doing great work, all these sailors here are getting everything ready for us, we’re flying combat missions every day.”

With just six weeks left to go in their deployment, said Matzko, the squadron was ordered to Aviano Air Base, Italy.  Sailors began packing everything up for the move.

“We took off in the middle of the night, landed in the morning, when it was light, and we were exhausted,” Matzko, who was the squadron’s executive officer at the time, described. “So were the sailors. Guess what they did? They unpacked everything. Twelve hours from when I landed, the skipper (Cmdr. Jeffrey Craig) led the first strikes over the shores of Tripoli.”

According to Matzko, they were told they’d be in Aviano for about two weeks, that the Scorpions’ deployment would end at six months and they would all go home. Everyone started packing again, only to be told they would be there two more months.

“We can sit there and whine about it, or these people, these guys and gals, picked it up and said ‘Let’s fire it up, let’s do it again,’” said Matzko. “Two months later, the exact same thing happened. We are packed up, ready to go, we are leaving, we have a squadron coming in (on the USS Enterprise (CVN-65)). The Enterprise is steaming our way and then we get a message saying ‘The Enterprise is steaming south.’ South. That’s, um, not this way. I’m no rocket surgeon, but I don’t think they’re coming here.”

In the end, the Scorpions finished out an eight-month deployment, with their sense of humor obviously intact, as well as pride in a job well done and in the sailors of VAQ-132.

“We supported operations 24-hours-a day in Iraq and we were doing the same thing in Libya and it’s on the back of these sailors here that we got to do that,” said Matzko. “And to that I’ll say ‘ba-boom’.”