Lt. Benjamin J. Longacre, a 2014 graduate of Northampton Area High School, recently returned from a nine-month deployment with the U.S. Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian. Longacre is a pilot of the F/A-18E Super Hornet.

After graduating from NAHS, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy and received a degree in engineering. He received his wings as a naval aviator in August 2021 and was assigned to VFA-131 Wildcats squadron based at Virginia Beach, Va., attached to the USS Eisenhower.

Operation Prosperity Guardian is a coordinated operation of U.S. Armed Forces and 20 international coalition partners to protect commercial shipping in the Suez Canal, Red Sea and the broader Middle East. As part of the operation, pilots aboard the Eisenhower completed more than 31,000 flight hours and more than 10,000 launches and recoveries aboard the Eisenhower. Pilots aboard the Eisenhower, along with surface ships of the U.S. Navy and international partners, downed an undisclosed number of missiles, drones and unmanned surface and subsurface vehicles launched by the Houthi rebels from Yemen. According to Admiral Marc Miguez, Commander of Carrier Strike Group Two, the forces experienced the highest rate of combat operations since World War II.

During the nine-month deployment, the USS Eisenhower patrolled in the Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, Persian Gulf and Red Sea to counter terrorist threats.

Longacre will continue to fly the F/A-18E Super Hornet attached to VFA-131 and other shore-based assignments for the U.S. Navy.