The “Skinny Dragons” of Patrol Squadron 4 returned to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Oct.11 following a seven-month deployment.

VP-4 recently completed transition from the legacy P-3C Orion to the P-8A Poseidon in May of 2017. Less than a year later, the “Skinny Dragons” completed workups and deployed this past spring in April, becoming the first west coast squadron to deploy with the P-8A.

Forward deployed to Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Japan, the “Skinny Dragons” executed 620 operational sorties, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare.

Their 12 combat aircrews logged 3,575 mishap free flight hours and sustained a 100 percent sortie completion rate across numerous detachment sites to nine countries.

VP-4’s Maintenance Department logged over 29,000 hours of support.

In addition to ensuring aircraft availability and mission readiness, their sailors generated over 8,000 sailor qualifications from the ground up following transition in order to deploy fully prepared.

Christopher Purcell, commanding officer of the “Skinny Dragons,” credited the tireless efforts of junior sailors with the many highlights of deployment.

“Day in and day out, I could not be more proud of how our sailors tirelessly set new standards of excellence on the flight line, on liberty and throughout the AOR,” Purcell said.

“As the capstone event to our transition, we are eager to share our lessons learned with the Whidbey Island P-8A community as we grow and exercise the capabilities of this aircraft.”