JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It was a happy homecoming at Naval Air Station Jacksonville on Friday when Maritime Strike Squadron 74, also known as the Swamp Foxes, returned home from a seven-month deployment.
The strike squadron left on Jan. 8, 2020, and the sailors set a record by spending 206 days at sea without docking because of the ongoing global pandemic.
On top of the record time on the sea, deployment in 2020 has been quite different for the Swamp Foxes because the sailor’s families weren’t the only ones worried this time.
Dan Murphy, the commanding officer of Swamp Foxes.
Full Screen 1 / 7 Navy helicopter squadron returns home from record-breaking deploymentThe Swamp Foxes’ 11 helicopters and 300 sailors took part in surveillance, strike coordination intelligence and reconnaissance operations, according to a release.