This Military Service Page was created/owned by
LCDR James Larry Kimbrow (MO)
to remember
Horvath, James (Jim), CMDCM USN(Ret).
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I retired from the Navy in 1997. After retiring, I held a variety of jobs before being hired in November 1998 as a Recruiting Manager for the US Census Bureau. When Census 2000 came to a close, I was hired by MANTECH International to serve on the staff of COMNAVAIRLANT as a member of the NALCOMIS training and implementation team.
In July 2005, I was hired by Alpha Solutions to serve as a Training Consultant in the N74 Branch of US Fleet Forces (USFF) Command. In October 2006, I was accepted into Civil Service and moved down the hallway to USFF's N40 Readiness Branch to work as a Program Analyst.
Although officially known as the "Griffins," VAW-121 is more commonly known as the "Bluetails" as shown in their distinctive markings. VAW-121 is presently assigned to Carrier Air Wing 7 (CVW-7) which it has been since it began flying the E-2C Hawkeye in 1977.
Like VAW-122, VAW-123 and VAW-120, VAW-121 was created out of the "super squadron" VAW-12 on 1 April 1967. Until then, VAW-12 had deployed 4-plane detachments to accompany carrier air wings. Unlike its siblings, VAW-121 would fly the E-1B Tracer, deploying dets until the mid-1970s. This was due to the fact there were still carriers in the inventory that were not configured (USSFranklin D. Roosevelt)nor capable to handle the much larger E-2C (essentially all those of the so-called "27C" class such as the USSLexington).
In 1977 VAW-121 made its first deployment as part of CVW-7 on the newly commissioned USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, but it wasn't until the next deployment in 1980 that they really began to set records. That year saw VAW-121 deployed for 347 days at sea with IKE/CVW-7 setting a modern day record that would not be broken until the deployment of the USS Theodore Roosevelt during Operation Enduring Freedom. After returning from this extended deployment, the Bluetails were sent to Iceland to relieve the Reserve E-2B squadrons who had picked up the North Atlantic AEW watch when the E-3 AWACS were re-deployed to Saudi Arabia. Returning from a three month winter deployment to Iceland, the Bluetails found themselves again in the North Atlantic conducting three CVBG operations with USS Forrestal and HMS Hermes, the later deploying with the new Sea Harrier. During the course of this three year period, 1979-1981 VAW-121 set unprecedented levels of performance by winning the COMNAVAIRLANT Battle "E" for Excellence and AEW Excellence awards for three straight years and the Chief of Naval Operations Safety "S" for two straight years.
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