Tag: VF-1 Wolfpack
The recovery was successful; no injuries were sustained during the F-14A Tomcat emergency landing. Taken on Jun. 30, 1984 the photo sequence in this post shows: LEFT - A Grumman F-14A Tomcat fighter jet from VF-1 Wolfpack entering a barricade during an emergency landing aboard the conventionally-powered U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty...
Stenciled on the tails of VF-1's Wichita 103 were the words “El Coyote”. This Tomcat scored the first recorded air-to-air kill against an Iraqi helicopter in Desert Storm. After a four-day port call at Subic Bay in the Philippines, the USS Ranger set sail on Jan. 3, 1991 for the Persian Gulf,...
“Moving up to the F-14 Tomcat meant crossing the magic line that separates the men from the boys, like first-time sex, glorious and terrifying” Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer stated explicitly that the inspiration for the famed Paramount motion picture “Top Gun” was the article "Top Guns" by Ehud Yonay, from the May 1983 issue of California magazine, which...
The decision to incorporate the Super Hornet and decommission the F-14 was mainly due to high amount of maintenance required to keep the Tomcats operational On Feb. 8, 2006 a chapter in naval aviation history was closed aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) with the last recovery of an F-14 Tomcat from a combat mission.
Piloted by then-Capt. William G. Sizemore...
