Oak Harbor native Alyssa Pierson recently selected VAQ-139 as her fleet squadron; she will train with them for the next year before deployment, making her a third-generation aviator at Naval Air Station Whidbey.
Alyssa started her Navy career with a scholarship to Texas A&M University. By her senior year, she was the first female commanding officer of the E-2, leading 55 of her peers. After three years of flying the C-172 Cessna, T-6A Texan II and T-45C Goshawk in Pensacola, Florida, she earned her Wings of Gold in the same location her father earned his 31 years prior.
By graduation, she was selected to return to her hometown to fly Growlers with squadron VAQ-129. There were many of her father’s homecomings that took place on the same tarmac, in the same hangar bays, alongside the same squadrons that she now has the privilege of contributing to, she said.
Alyssa’s grandmother moved to Oak Harbor from California around 1950 when her first husband, Frederic Prael, was stationed at NAS Whidbey as an activated reservist during the Korean conflict, said Alyssa’s father, Capt. Randolph Pierson. Prael was deployed to the South China Sea and was likely shot down in the Yellow Sea in 1954.
The couple had moved to Whidbey with three kids, and Randolph is still close to that side of his family.
“Every event I’ve had where I’ve spoken and they’re there, it’s sad, but just to give an idea of the quality of the family or our relationship, I have to thank them for their loss, because without their loss I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
Alyssa’s grandmother married her grandfather, a Navy Corpsman, about five years later, and it was her biological grandfather’s ship who had gone out searching for her “Papa Prael,” she said.
The Prael family still hangs onto Frederic’s heirlooms from flight school.
“To see those and just know that I’m working on the same things that he did that my dad did, and now I’m doing it, is very unique,” Alyssa said.
Capt. Randolph Pierson retired after 30 years of active naval service, awarded with the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal and others. He logged 3,700 flight hours, deploying on five aircraft carriers to the Western Pacific and Arabian Gulf supporting operations Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
Randolph’s father wanted him to be an engineer, he said. When he told his parents he wanted to be a pilot, his mother was upset because of her first loss.
She had taught him about her first husband’s love of flying, he said, and his dad taught him that, with hard work, anything is possible in the Navy. Growing up in Oak Harbor, the Navy and the community in a lot of ways are woven as one.
Randolph had never pushed his daughters to join the Navy either, Alyssa said. If anything, he encouraged them to find their own path. They had grown up with the Navy lifestyle, and it was time for them to experience something new.
But, in a similar way, she always looked up to her dad and grew up witnessing so many cool things he was able to take part in, she said. Flying took him all over the world, and he was a huge influence.
Now, her younger sister is a surface warfare officer in the Navy.
“Next thing you know, two of us are in the Navy,” she said, “but once we told (our parents) we wanted to go Navy and we started working toward that, they were obviously very supportive.”
Alyssa’s interest in that world wasn’t a surprise, Randolph said. Her talent was obvious.
“She was 11 years old the first time she took me out with a 260-horse engine, wakeboarding and water skiing, pulling me all by herself, because she’s really good,” he said. “Fourteen years old the first time she was driving the Harley.”
Alyssa cherishes the connection it brings her and her father, she said. She often calls him after work to talk about the things they are doing, compare stories, and discuss how the Navy has changed. He was in Prowlers, and she is in Growlers. The aircraft have come a long way over the years.
The Navy life can be difficult, Randolph said. Gone on deployment, he had to miss some important moments at home. At times, he had doubts about if it was the right thing.
Today, he is most proud that what he saw and experienced in the Navy with sailors, aviation and deployments captured the interest of all three of his daughters.
A lot of this is owed to his wife, Sherri, he said, who always “made the house a home, always supported me and them and always found the beauty in all Navy life.”
“What does it mean to me?” he asked. “The validation that (my daughters) value and respect my service to the point where they want to serve themselves. There’s no message stronger and nothing more heartwarming.”
A Navy career means frequent moves, Randolph said, but through all of them Oak Harbor was an anchor.
“When you’re going town to town, what is home?” Randolph asked. “The home is who’s in the house. It gets very problematic when you try to call it a geographical region. What is Oak Harbor to us? It is home. It is our Navy home and our family home, and through my lens, all the celebrations, all the passings, it’s all there.”
The Oak Harbor community supported Randolph’s mother when she first moved in 1950 and welcomed the family back after three tours.
“It endures 35 years with friends and family,” he said, “and I see my daughter who is receiving all the love and attention from the same people inside the Navy community and within Oak Harbor.”
Of all the places Alyssa has lived, Oak Harbor is where her family is, and more than that, it’s a small, tight-knit community that feels familiar every time she’s back, she said.
It’s been just over a year since Alyssa first entered a Growler, and she has now selected the squadron she will be in for the next three years. Now, she will get into the mission and how to apply the Growler to a fight. This will mean training trips across the county and, eventually, deployment.
“I’ve seen the deployment from a kid’s perspective, having your dad be gone for six to eight months at a time. That wasn’t fun, but we got through it,” she said. “I’m excited to go out there and do it myself and really experience it and put all of this effort into the mission and executing what the Navy needs us to do.”
Photo Provided Randy Pierson meeting Alyssa, 1 month old, for the first time during the VAQ-137 Rooks Homecoming in 1998.
Photo provided From left, Alyssa, Brooke, Shelby, Sherri and Randy Pierson posing at Shelby’s Commissioning at Virginia Tech University in 2022.
Sherri Pierson, left, holds her daughter Alyssa, and Randy Pierson holds his daughter Brooke during the VAQ-137 Rooks Homecoming.
Shelby (4 years old, front), Brooke (8 years old, middle-left), Alyssa (6 years old, middle-right), Randy (back-left), Sherri (back middle) and William Pierson pose during the VAQ-132 Scorpions homecoming in 2004. (Photo provided)
