NAVAL AIR STATION WHIDBEY ISLAND — Cmdr. David “Heavy” Ganci passed command of Electronic Attack Squadron 130 (VAQ-130) to Cmdr. Jack “Farva” Curtis at a ceremony in the squadron’s hangar on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island on July 3.
Ganci is a 1998 graduate of Elmira College in Elmira, N.Y., and the Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island.
He has been the commander of VAQ-130 since June 2018 and will report to the Pentagon for duty in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Curtis is a 2000 graduate of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla.
He also is a graduate of the Naval War College, with a masters degree in national security and strategic studies.
He comes to Whidbey Island from an assignment at the Missile Defense Agency at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.
Curtis has also served a fleet tour in VAQ-141, as an instructor with VAQ-129 and as a staff landing signal officer with Carrier Air Wing 9, including a West Pacific deployment aboard the U.S.S. John C. Stennis (CVN-64).
Electronic attack squadrons are composed of four EA-18G Growlers and the personnel to operate them.
VAQ-130 is part of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group which is centered around the U.S.S. Eisenhower (CVN-69).