The aircraft were serviced and maintained by Northrop Grumman civilian contractors who also deployed with the squadron.
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VAW-77 continues to operate out of Howard AFB, Panama; Patrick AFB, Florida; Comalapa Air Force Base, El Salvador; Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico; Manta Air Force Base located at the Eloy Alfaro International Airport in Manta, Ecuador; and Hato International Airport, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles.
It had its beginnings on 20 April 1967 as Replacement Airborne Early Warning Squadron 110, RVAW-110, which had been formed when VAW-11 was broken into six separate squadrons.
The Golden Hawks deployed in July 1998 for a short detachment to Hawaii aboard the USS Kitty Hawk and later transferred the newest E-2C Plus Group II Navigation Upgrade aircraft to VAW-115 home bases at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan.
Significant improvements in this aircraft over its predecessors are its APS-145 radar, Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS), enhanced high speed processor (EHSP) computer, and Allison T56-A-427 engines.
In 1990 and 1991, VAW-114 upgraded to the E-2C+ version of the Hawkeye and made two drug-interdiction deployments to Howard Air Force Base in Panama.
VAW-116 became "semi-famous" in 2006 for its remake of the "Pump It" music video, by The Black Eyed Peas.
The squadron had grown to over 200 officers and 800 enlisted personnel, as had VAW-11, its counterpart on the West Coast.
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VAW-121, VAW-122, and VAW-123 were formed from former VAW-12 operating detachments.
Like VAW-122, VAW-123 and VAW-120, VAW-121 was created out of the "super squadron" VAW-12 on 1 April 1967.
During a 1968 deployment on board the USS America off Vietnam, VAW-122 crews assisted a VF-33 F-4 Phantom crew in downing a North Vietnamese MiG-21 fighter as well as controlling interdiction strikes against North Vietnam.
In December 1976, Vice Admiral Howard E. Greer, COMNAVAIRLANT, presented VAW-125 with the Comnavairlant Battle “E” for readiness, the Cinclantflt “Golden Anchor” Award for career retention, and the CNO Safety “S” Award.
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Upon return from deployment, the squadron participated in two national tasking missions VAW squadrons would be assigned over the next twenty-plus years, first providing range control services for the second launch of the NASA space shuttle, STS-2, and second providing detection and monitoring services in the first E-2C Counter-Drug tasking, Operation Thunderbolt.