Navy aviators disciplined over racy skywriting after Coronado hearing

The Navy’s “air boss,” Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, has disciplined two aviators involved in a Nov. 15 incident of risque skywriting in Washington state.

The unnamed male pilot and his backseat aviator from the “Zappers” of Electronic Attack Squadron 130 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., received administrative punishment on Nov. 22 following a Field Naval Aviator Evaluation Board hearing before Shoemaker on North Island near Coronado.

The pilot of the EA-18G Growler used the contrails of the jet to sketch a likeness of a penis in the air during a routine training exercise, a floating image that became an internet sensation when it was photographed and shared on social media.

That the hearing occurred at the North Island headquarters of Naval Air Forces — rather than at the squadron or wing levels — signaled the importance the military assigned to addressing the stunt.

“The aviators were apologetic” and “contrite,” said Cmdr. Ron Flanders, a Navy spokesman. “They realized that this was an embarrassment to naval aviation and the entire Navy. This sort of conduct is contrary to the core values of the Navy.”

Flanders said the Navy was barred by privacy laws from identifying the aviators or detailing their punishment, but the results of the board were obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune

Shoemaker determined that the aviators’ actions were “impulsive and immature” but both were “forthright and remorseful.” He ordered that they be placed on probation for six months and to address their fellow crews on Whidbey Island in a series of “Change the Culture” briefs describing the “ramifications and the embarrassment it caused” while “contrasting their actions with the excellence and discipline” of other sailors worldwide.”

Punishment could have included loss of the aviators’ coveted wing insignia.

Both aviators continue to face a separate inquiry from their Virginia-based Carrier Air Wing 3.

carl.prine@sduniontribune.com