Bureau Number 141234, the museum’s example of the P2V-7S (SP-2H after the tri-service aircraft designation system was adopted in 1962), is one of the last of the breed of the famous patrol plane that debuted immediately following World War II. First flown in 1954,the SP-2H versions of the aircraft featured under wing jet pods for added power and carried the most sophisticated antisubmarine warfare detection equipment of its day, namely the Jezebel and Julie systems, which allowed it to play cat and mouse with Soviet submarines.
SP-2Hs made their ceremonial last flight with the fleet on 20 February 1970, between Naval Air Stations (NAS) NAS Brunswick, Maine, and Norfolk, Virginia. Thus, operation of the Navy’s surviving SP-2Hs transitioned to the Naval Air Reserve, including the SP-2H now on display at the museum, which joined VP-65 following its establishment at NAS Los Alamitos, California. During its four years assigned to the squadron, the aircraft made summer deployments to Guatemala, Nicaragua, NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii, and NAS Rota, Spain. While on one cruise to the latter location, it was involved in a memorable mission, one recently recounted by Lieutenant Commander Robert Brow, USNR (Ret.), the navigator on board at the time. "While a member of VP-65 in the early seventies, one year we took our two-week active duty in NAS Rota, Spain. We flew actual missions there, while the active duty ASW squadron stood down. I flew as navigator. One morning our eight-hour mission was general ship surveillance and to search for a particular Soviet freighter that was attempting to sneak through the Straits of Gibraltar unnoticed early in the morning. We were to identify this particular ship and take photos of its deck cargo. "In that I had studied Russian in college and could read it fairly well, I was stationed in the nose with a pair of binoculars. Flying from ship to ship it took less than an hour after dawn to give me enough light, I spotted the ship. As I read its name on the stern, I reported “tally-ho” to the rest of the crew. We took quite a few pictures (careful not to cross its bow) and radioed back to Rota headquarters via a coded message what we had found [her]. They instructed us to return to base immediately. When we landed, there was a jeep standing by on the flight line, and without a word they removed our cameras and sped off. We were then told to take off again and complete our general mission. "When we landed six hours later there was another jeep standing by, this time with the base OOD. He presented the crew with a case of beer and related a “job well done” from the Admiral…We were never told why the Navy was so interested in the ship’s cargo, but it looked like weapons on the decks that the Russians were illicitly transporting somewhere. We were proud to have taken part in something so important, but no further word about the incident was ever given." By 1974, VP-65 had taken the step its active duty counterparts had completed four years earlier by transitioning to the P-3 Orion. Bureau Number 141234 held on to the very end and was the last SP-2H operational in the squadron when its transfer to the museum was completed in 1974. Pictured above, the museum's SP-2H in flight while in VP-65 and Lieutenant Commander Brow and his fellow crewmembers celebrating.