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NORFOLK, Va. (Sept. 25, 2025) – USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) completed a ten-day underway Sept. 26, qualifying 45 aviators and leading allied and partner ships in a group sail during UNITAS 2025, the world’s longest-running annual multinational maritime exercise.
Over the course of 144 sorties, aviators executed 506 arrested landings—456 in daylight and 50 at night—and 152 touch-and-goes. Student aviators earned their first carrier qualifications, ensuring Naval Aviation remains ready to defend American interests at sea.
Carrier qualifications included training squadrons from Training Air Wings 1 and 2 flying the T-45C Goshawk, along with Airborne Command & Control Squadron 120 (VAW-120) and Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40 (VRC-40) operating the E-2D Hawkeye and C-2A Greyhound. Together, these squadrons ensured student aviators met the standards required for safe carrier operations.
“Every arrested landing and every qualification is more than a milestone—it’s the result of hundreds of quiet, expert actions,” said Capt. Daniel “Prozac” Prochazka, Truman’s commanding officer. “Watching our Sailors run the deck, you can’t help but feel thankful to serve with them. They made this happen. In this underway, we qualified aviators; during UNITAS, we led our allies in a group sail. Both efforts showed exactly who they are: skilled, disciplined, and all-in for the mission.”
For many student aviators, this underway marked their first time earning carrier qualifications; for others, it was the final step before joining operational fleet squadrons.
Lt. j.g. Ellen Banker, of Wilmington, Delaware—who began flight training in Corpus Christi in the T-6B Texan II and is now assigned to Training Squadron (VT) 21 at Naval Air Station Kingsville—completed her carrier qualifications aboard Truman.
“Once they clear us to come the ship, we’re led out here by our instructors,” said Banker. “They drop us off overhead the ship and then we enter the landing pattern. We have to get ten arrested landings aboard the ship in order to pass our carrier qualification stage.”
In a separate event, Truman operated with partner navies for UNITAS 2025, where the group sail emphasized navigation, communications, and marshalling procedures that underpin combined maritime operations. Founded in 1960, UNITAS has grown into a 25-nation exercise, making it the world’s longest-running annual multinational maritime exercise.
By combining carrier qualifications with participation in UNITAS 2025, Truman sustained readiness, built interoperability with partners across 25 nations, and prepared the next generation of naval aviators.
USS Harry S. Truman, the flagship of the Harry S. Truman Strike Group, is a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier homeported at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. Carrier Strike Groups remain the cornerstone of the Navy’s forward presence through sea control and power projection.
For more information, visit DVIDS at https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/CVN75 .
| Date Taken: | 09.26.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.26.2025 17:29 |
| Story ID: | 549464 |
| Location: | NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 64 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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