A Navy Reserve aviation squadron credited with saving more than 1,840 New Orleans-area residents in the flooded chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina has become a casualty of military spending cuts. Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 77, or VAW-77, will be ceremonially disbanded next month, the Navy confirmed Wednesday.
Its six E-2C Hawkeye airplanes and many of its personnel already have been redistributed elsewhere in the U.S. Navy’s fleet, a Navy spokesman said.
Its aircrews made their last flights out of the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse late last month, complete with a ceremonial parade featuring music by Navy Band New Orleans, according to photographs the air station released Wednesday.
For the complete story by Paul Purpura of NOLA.com/The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune, click here.
Photo by U.S. Navy
