VMAQ-2 Det "A" Far East 1977

VMAQ-2 "Playboys" — Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 2, Detachment Alpha · USMC · 1977

Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 2 was granted the Playboy bunny in 1955, and the rabbit rode west again on this Detachment Alpha souvenir. Under the scheme VMAQ-2 adopted after its 1975 redesignation from VMCJ-2, the lettered detachments — Alpha, Bravo, Charlie — flew the EA-6A "Electric Intruder," while Xray, Yankee, and Zulu took the newer EA-6B Prowler, so Det "A" went to the Far East in 1977 with what were by then the last EA-6As in the Department of Defense inventory. The squadron had inherited those jammers when VMCJ-1 stood down at MCAS Iwakuni in September 1975, and its six-month detachments worked the electromagnetic spectrum for the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing and the Midway air wing until the Prowler assumed the commitment in 1978. The push broom and the deadpan "LOVING IT!" are the det's own verdict on the unglamorous half of an unaccompanied WESTPAC tour.