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As the Navy retired its fleet of Grumman EA-6B Prowlers, they were relatively generous about letting various museums acquire them. For instance, my own Palm Springs Air Museum has one. And the Pacific Coast Air Museum in Santa Rosa also acquired one.  How does one get a Prowler to the museum? Well, usually, since a lot of air museums are located at airports, they just fly them there. After they land, a small team of Navy personnel drain all the fluids, and remove all the pryrotechnics (such as from the ejection seats) and any sensitive military equipment, such as secure communications items. That takes a couple days, but other than that, no other actions are usually needed.  There are exceptions, however. F-14s, because of the sanctions on spare parts to Iran, have to be pretty much gutted.

One cool thing. The very first Prowler delivered to the fleet at NAS Whidbey was flown in by a Navy pilot by the name of Fred Wilmot, in 1970, as I recall.  Fred eventually retired from the Navy, but still lives just off the end of the runway at NAS Whidbey.

When the time came for the Navy to send its final Prowler off to the Pt. Mugu Air Park, VAQ-129 called Fred, and invited him along. It is altogether fitting that Fred bookened the delivery, and sunset of the Prowler.