A Hollywood, Maryland native is serving in the U.S. Navy with one of the service’s oldest aviation squadrons, flying and maintaining aircraft that patrol the world’s oceans.
Petty Officer 1st Class Kyle Sprague, a 2004 graduate of Roosevelt Roads Middle High School, is assigned to the “Red Lancers” of Patrol Squadron 10 (VP-10), based at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida. Sprague’s high school operated on the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, serving children of military families before the base closed in 2004.
VP-10 is one of the original and oldest aviation squadrons in the Navy, formed in 1921 as a derivative of VS-15 and officially tracing its heritage to July 1, 1930, with the commissioning of Patrol Bombing Squadron 10S. The squadron’s history includes setting a world record for a nonstop formation transpacific flight from San Francisco to Hawaii in February 1935, and losing eight of 12 aircraft in the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. A VP-10-flown PBY Catalina was the first aircraft to locate and report the position of the Japanese carrier strike force ahead of the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The squadron transitioned from the P-3C Orion to its current aircraft, the P-8A Poseidon, in 2015 — its first aircraft change in 50 years.
Today, VP-10 flies and maintains the P-8A Poseidon, a multi-mission maritime aircraft designed to give the Navy long-range maritime patrol capability. P-8A aircraft deploy globally to monitor the world’s oceans, reflecting the Navy’s emphasis on the link between undersea security — including protection of undersea fiber optic cables carrying global internet traffic — and national prosperity, given that 90% of global commerce travels by sea.
Sprague, an aviation structural mechanic with 12 years of Navy service, comes from a military family with deep Navy roots. “I grew up in a Navy household all over the world and always wanted to serve,” Sprague said. “Both of my parents are retired Navy chiefs. I am a fourth-generation service member on my father’s side and third-generation on my mother’s side.”
Sprague credits growing up overseas with shaping a broader worldview. “Growing up all over the world, I met many people from different backgrounds and learned that everyone has a story and something to offer,” Sprague said, adding that returning to the U.S. felt like “a culture shock” after that experience.
Among Sprague’s proudest achievements is an early-career moment that didn’t come with a typical award. Sprague and an aircrewman stopped a flight evolution aboard the USS James E. Williams after a bushing worked loose on an MH-60R helicopter’s tail, bringing the horizontal stabilizer dangerously close to the tail rotor. “Contact between the tail rotor and the stabilizer would have been catastrophic,” Sprague said. The intervention protected three people aboard the aircraft and 10 personnel on the flight deck, and led to a corrective action adopted fleet-wide.
Sprague, who briefly taught after college before joining the Navy full-time, said mentoring younger sailors remains the most rewarding part of the job. “Helping young sailors learn their trade is my greatest joy in the Navy,” Sprague said.
This year, the Navy is commemorating its role in the nation’s defense as the United States marks 250 years of independence. More information is available at navy.mil/navy-250.
