NAS Whidbey resumes Growler training alerts after three-month pause

Residents around Naval Air Station Whidbey Island are getting their familiar Growler training notices again, ending a three-month pause that had left North Whidbey and Coupeville without the weekly road map they use to plan around military noise. The Navy released a schedule Friday for EA-18G flight training during the week of June 8 through June 14.

The break began March 5, when the base stopped disclosing aircraft training schedules as global military operations intensified and security concerns tightened. Navy officials said then that the move was tied to heightened operational security, not to any specific threat, and base public affairs officer Mike Welding described it as a prudent step for the safety of both personnel and the surrounding community.

For Island County residents, the return of the notices matters because the weekly windows for OLF Coupeville and Ault Field are one of the few advance signals for when flight activity is likely to pick up. NAS Whidbey says those windows are released for community planning purposes, and the station notes that training tempo can shift with weather and maintenance. In practical terms, the alerts help families decide when to expect more noise, when to plan outdoor work, and how to prepare for the kind of low-level military flying that can shape a day on Whidbey.

The station also maintains a comment line at 360-257-6665 for noise complaints, underscoring that the notices are part of a broader system for managing contact with nearby communities, not just a courtesy update. The resumption suggests the Navy is restoring that routine channel of communication after a period when residents were left to guess more than usual about what would be flying overhead.

The timing also comes as Electronic Attack Squadron 142, the Gray Wolves, returned to Naval Station Whidbey Island on May 11 after an 11-month deployment with Carrier Air Wing 8 aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group. Navy aviation coverage said the CVW-8 squadrons logged more than 5,500 flight hours and more than 11,800 launches during that deployment, putting the base’s flight operations back in the local spotlight.

The broader dispute over Growler noise has not faded. San Juan County said in a 2025 resolution that military jet noise has increased since the first Growlers arrived in 2008, and residents have filed more than 4,800 noise complaints since May 2014. For communities living under the flight path, the return of weekly alerts is a small but important sign that the Navy is again telling neighbors what to expect before the noise arrives.