F-14 Tomcat

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 Hawk (CV-63). CENTER – The barricade restrains the aircraft as it comes aboard the carrier. The recovery was successful; no injuries were sustained during the landing. RIGHT – Crew members use an NP-50 crane to remove the damaged aircraft from the flight deck after its emergency barricade landing.

VF-1, “Wolfpack” was established on Oct. 14, 1972, at Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar, at the same time as VF-2, these units were the first F-14 fighter squadrons. VF-1 received the first F-14As on Jul. 1, 1973. The squadron’s insignia was a red wolf’s head designed by Grumman Commercial Artist, George M. Kehew himself a WWII combat veteran. The Squadron Insignia is registered in the Library of Congress.

The first cruise came in September 1974 onboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65). The end of the cruise saw the first Tomcat’s combat debut, as VF-1 and VF-2 flew cover over Saigon for evacuation of US personnel in April 1975 as part of Operation Frequent Wind.

In September 1980, VF-1 and VF-2 changed carrier air wings, moved to USS Ranger (CV-61), and flew various cruises with her until they shifted carriers once again in 1984 to USS Kitty Hawk. They stayed with Kitty Hawk for one cruise. In 1984, VF-1 had achieved an impressive 22,000 flight hours without a single accident. By 1986, they returned to the Ranger and were with the carrier during Operation Desert Storm where VF-1 scored the only F-14 air-to-air kill during the war, an Iraqi Mil Mi-8 helicopter was downed by an AIM-9 Sidewinder.

The Ranger’s last foreign port of entry was Sydney Australia in January of 1993 after having spent New Year’s Eve 1992 in Melbourne Australia.

The Ranger was decommissioned in 1993 and VF-1 was left without a carrier. They operated out of NAS Miramar until VF-1 itself was disestablished on Oct. 1, 1993.

U.S. Navy photos by PH3 Hall. From the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

“On the night of July 11th as we made our way across the pond, it was a horrible night for pilots ‘behind the boat’ as the deck was pitching 10 feet in both directions…,” Rich Herbst, former F-14A pilot with VF-51 Screaming Eagles.

The photo in this post shows the remains of VF-51 Screaming Eagles F-14A Tomcat BuNo 162602 after a ramp strike upon landing aboard the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63).

This F-14 ramp strike and subsequent crew ejection took place on Jul. 11, 1994.

According to former VF-51 pilot Rich Herbst, “On the night of July 11th as we made our way across the pond, it was a horrible night for pilots ‘behind the boat’ as the deck was pitching 10 feet in both directions. The pilot, LT “Pig” Arnold, made an unsafe power correction inside the wave-off window, chasing the deck down. When the ship rose back up, he did not have enough power, even at full throttle, to safely wave off. The RIO – LCRD “Animal” Jennings saw what was coming and he initiated ejection just after the plane impacted the round down of the ship. The plane actually caught a wire and split into two pieces, with the engine and back half of the jet left as a burning fireball in the wires. The front half of the jet skidded off of the front of the ship. The animal landed in his chute on the front of the ship next to some parked S-3s. Aside from some minor injuries to his feet due to the landing impact, Animal was fine and flying within a few days. Pig had the unfortunate luck to be brought down in his chute right into the fireball that was burning in the wires. He sustained serious injuries to his hands and neck. He ended up making a full recovery, but never flew Tomcats again.”

Herbst continues: “My stateroom was on the O-3 level right under the “crotch”. I watched the mishap live on the ship’s closed-circuit PLAT TV and will never forget the sound of the scraping metal of the jet going across the deck, above me in my stateroom as we watched.”

Noteworthy original U.S. Navy plans saw VF-51 and its sister squadron VF-111 becoming the first deployable units to transition to the F-14D Super Tomcat, however, these plans were canceled in December 1991 and VF-51 spent the time to its disestablishment (in March 1995) flying the F-14A.

Then following, a horrific video shows the ramp strike described in this article. 

The IRIAF F-14A Tomcat airframe is completely destroyed.

The picture in this post features the IslamicnRepublic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) F-14A Tomcat that crashed yesterday.

According to Scramble Facebook News Magazine, it is now (still unconfirmed) reported that the aircraft involved is F-14A 3-6003. According to the picture of the fatal Tomcat, the airframe is completely destroyed.

As we have reported yesterday, one of the few remaining IRIAF F-14A Tomcat fighter jets was involved in a crash at home base Esfahãn-Shahid Beheshti International Airport (Iran).

The IRIAF F-14A from the 8th Tactical Air Base crashed while it was landing. The aircraft reported an emergency to air traffic control during its training flight, subsequently, the fighter was approved to make a quick landing at Esfahãn, but the aircraft was not able to hold position and skidded off the runway. Both pilot and Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) were forced to eject. They parachuted safely to mother earth.

It is said that the IRIAF only has some twelve to fourteen operational F-14A and F-14AMs left. The IRIAF faces large problems to keep their Tomcats in the air (the AM version is locally modified and equipped with new avionics and multi-function displays in the cockpit, countermeasure systems, radar warning receivers, and an inertial navigation system).

The U.S. Navy retired the iconic Tomcat on Sep. 22, 2006, and today the F-14 remains in service with IRIAF.

In January 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced that sales of spare F-14 parts would be suspended over concerns of the parts ending up in Iran, and in Jul. 2007 the remaining U.S. F-14s were shredded to ensure that any parts could not be acquired.

However, in Oct. 2010, the IRIAF commander stated that his country was overhauling its F-14s and mentioned that an Iran-made radar system had been installed on the fighter.

Moreover in the summer of 2010, Iran requested that the U.S. deliver the 80th F-14 it had purchased in 1974, but delivery was denied after the Islamic Revolution.

Photo by Scramble Facebook News Magazine

The first, emotional segment of the video shows VF-14 Tophatters Tomcats over New York.

The cool video in this post features collection of various laser-guided bomb strikes conducted in Afghanistan, in October 2001, by U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats belonging to VF-14 Tophatters.

The first, emotional segment of the video shows VF-14 Tomcats over New York.

In April 2001, VF-14 embarked on their final F-14 cruise onboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), supporting Operation Southern Watch (OSW) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). As the carrier headed for home and on its way to South Africa they were given an order to head to the North Persian Gulf after the Sep. 11, 2001 Attacks.

The USS Enterprise/CVW-8 had been elected to be the night carrier during OEF and thus didn’t see action until Oct. 8, VF-14 attacked a radar warning installation near Kabul during CVW-8’s initial strike, which had been envisioned to have a section of F/A-18s, a section of F-14s from VF-14 and an EA-6B from VAQ-141, but due to insufficient fuel available for the Hornets, only the F-14s and the EA-6B pressed on.

After its last F-14 cruise VF-14 was redesignated Strike Fighter Squadron 14 (VFA-14), relocated to NAS Lemoore, and began the transition to the F/A-18 Super Hornet switching to CVW-11 and USS Nimitz (CVN-68).

After their return to the US in November, VF-14 had dropped 173,324 lbs of ordnance (174 laser-guided bombs), VF-14 also buddy-lased 28 AGM-65 and 23 laser-guided bombs.

‘”Gordo” yelled “Eject, Eject, Eject!” while I was doing my best to keep the jet stable to ensure that we were in a good envelope so when we punched out the ‘chutes would work as advertised,’ Chad Vincelette, former F-14A Tomcat pilot with VF-154 Black Knights.

Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) was a huge success for the F-14 squadrons committed to the action. Tomcat pilots and radar intercept officers (RIOs) flew myriad missions in their 52 jets, performing air defense, forward air controlling (airborne), strike coordination, reconnaissance and photo-reconnaissance missions, and precision bombing across Iraq.

VF-154’s war was undoubtedly the most unusual of any of the Tomcat units committed to OIF. Deployed on its final cruise with the F-14A as part of CVW-5, the ‘Black Knights’ arrived on station in the far north of the NAG aboard Kitty Hawk on Feb. 26, 2003.

Prior to the squadron’s spring deployment, VF-154 had tailored its training to maximize its precision strike capabilities, including dedicated training in target acquisition in urban environments. During CVW-5 work-ups, the unit was directly responsible for developing standardized precision FAC(A) and CAS tactics for the entire air wing.

Once in theatre, VF-154’s pre-deployment focus on the air-to-ground mission allowed it to work with many different assets as CVW-5 looked to expand its role both in Expeditionary Warfare and precision CAS in the combat environment. After short notice tasking from CENTCOM, VF-154 detached four crews (augmented by FAC(A) instructors recently drafted in from NSAWC) and four jets to Al Udeid airbase, in Qatar. With combat operations looming, these crews quickly scheduled multiple training events to teach SCAR (Strike Coordination Armed Reconnaissance) to the inter-Coalition and inter-service assets based at Al Udeid. Whilst ashore, VF-154 worked closely with RAF Tornado GR 4s, USAF F-15Es, F-16CGs and F-16CJs and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F/A-18As.

As explained by Tony Holmes in his book U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat Units of Operation Iraqi Freedom, VF-154 did not escape from its shore-based foray unscathed, however, on the night of Apr. 1, NSAWC augmentees Lt Chad Vincelette and Lt Cdr Scotty ‘Gordo’ McDonald (RIO) were forced to eject over southern Iraq when their jet (F-14A BuNo 158620) suffered a single (port) engine and fuel transfer system failure. The latter caused the remaining engine to run dry too, so the crew, who were two hours into their mission (and having already dropped some of their LGBs), ejected.

Within minutes, a pilot in an orbiting U-2 from the USAF’s 9th Reconnaissance Wing picked up a signal from the crew’s survival radios and passed the information back to his mission controller at Beale Force Base, in California. The latter in turn contacted CENTCOM’s Joint Personnel Recovery Center, which quickly despatched a USAF 301st Rescue Squadron Combat Search and Rescue HH-60G (supported by TACAIR assets) from Al Jaber air base in Kuwait. The naval aviators were rescued a short while later. This F-14A was the first Coalition aircraft to crash in Iraq since the start of OIF.

Lt Vincelette later gave the following account of what went wrong with his jet to Stars and Stripes magazine upon his return to CV-63;

‘We were heading out of Iraq after a normal flight, looking for a tanker to refuel from, when the left engine failed. Next came a failure in the fuel transfer system that allows the good engine to use all the aircraft’s fuel. ‘There was nothing we could do but sit and watch the fuel count down. We knew what was coming, and when it dipped below 200 lbs, the right engine came down, the generator started to hiccup and it was time to go.

‘”Gordo” yelled “Eject, Eject, Eject!” while I was doing my best to keep the jet stable to ensure that we were in a good envelope so when we punched out the ‘chutes would work as advertised. “Gordo” initiated the ejection. It was a fairly surreal experience, as we went from sitting in the warmth and comfort of our own cockpit to a violent windblast and hitting the desert floor pretty hard in our ‘chutes. Once on the ground, I quickly met up with “Gordo” and asked him whether he could walk as I helped him onto his feet. He replied, “I can run — just point the way!”‘

U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat Units of Operation Iraqi Freedom is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.

Photo by U.S. Navy

“Bad storm yesterday came through SD. Seemed to have shifted on the deck.”

As we have reported, on Feb. 14, 2019, F-14A Tomcat BuNo 159631 was lifted aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) aircraft carrier in San Diego for Top Gun: Maverick production.

Tom Cruise and the movie crew were aboard the aircraft carrier too.

Now as shown in this post, new photos of the F-14 aboard the aircraft carrier have surfaced.

As the anonymous source who took them explained to us the Tomcat seemed to have shifted on the deck. “Bad storm yesterday came through SD. Seemed to have shifted on the deck.”

However, the F-14 is now back on her wheels and parked on the flight deck near U.S. Navy Super Hornets.

An F-14 aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier remains a cool sight: the iconic Tomcat in fact was retired from active service in 2006 but the Aviation Geeks from all over the world never forgot the last of the Grumman Cats.

Besides the F-14 Tomcat, Top Gun: Maverick will likely feature the Navy’s new Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters alongside older Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.

According to some Facebook rumors the Tomcat will play the role of enemy aircraft in the movie. So sad any flying F-14s in the film will be only via CGI.

The movie was assigned a theatrical release date of Jul. 12, 2019, last year, but in September Paramount announced that had delayed the sequel nearly an entire year, assigning it a new release date of Jun. 26, 2020.

Noteworthy as already reported Maverick’s rides for the Top Gun sequel will be a cool special painted F/A-18F Super Hornet (which experienced a mid-air issue while it was flying with Tom Cruise onboard in September) and a new motorcycle that Tom Cruise already drove around the airfield (as he did on a Kawasaki Ninja in 1986 original) as shown in first pictures from Top Gun: Maverick set.

Tom Cruise teased the start of filming on the long-awaited Top Gun sequel on May 31, 2018with a tweet featuring an image of an older Capt. Pete Mitchell standing in a flight suit with his famous HGU-33 helmet (that wore to fly his F-14A Tomcat) in hand.

Artwork courtesy of AircraftProfilePrints.com

The F-14 in these photos is aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71)

Taken in San Diego on Feb. 14, 2019, the interesting photos in this post appeared on @Jeremiejca17 Twitter Account and they show an F-14 Tomcat aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier during Top Gun: Maverick production.

As it can be seen the aircraft features fictional markings.

Tom Cruise and the movie crew were aboard the aircraft carrier too.

Besides the F-14 Tomcat, Top Gun: Maverick will likely feature the Navy’s new Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters alongside older Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.

As we reported in August last year, in fact, a film crew from Paramount Pictures was aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) the same time the Navy began launching F-35C jets off the ship interchangeably with F/A-18E/F Super Hornets as an integrated air wing.

Instead as pointed out by #AW#’s contributor Ryan W. Gilchrist, the F-14 in these photos is aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71).

Noteworthy an F-14 aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier is quite a cool sight: the iconic Tomcat in fact was retired from active service in 2006 but the Aviation Geeks all over the world never forgot the last of the Grumman Cats.

The first scenes featuring the legendary F-14 for Top Gun Sequel were filmed in December last year when some photos showing Tom Cruise and Miles Teller on location for ‘Top Gun: Maverick‘ in Lake Tahoe appeared. On that occasion Cruise, Teller and crew gathered inside a hangar to go over the day’s shooting schedule before heading out to start filming.

31-year-old Teller is playing the role of Goose’s son, Bradley Bradshaw who is the protégé to Maverick in the sequel.

According to CVW – US Navy Carrier Air Wing Aircraft 1975-2015 book series Facebook Page, the Tomcat featured in the movie is “F-14A BuNo 159631 (on the charge of the San Diego Air & Space Museum) which was seen ‘road running’ in the Lake Tahoe, California area in a post by the California Highway Patrol, believed en route to a site for use in the filming of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. Well, she’s received markings of a spurious air force and is seen in this post going through rehearsals…just a shame any flying F-14s in the film will be only via CGI.”

According to some Facebook rumors the Tomcat in Top Gun: Maverick will play the role of enemy aircraft.

Last November, the actor had reportedly delayed filming for the hotly-anticipated sequel so that he could master a new skill – piloting fighter jets.

An insider told The Sun: ‘He already has a license to fly planes but isn’t qualified to fly fighter jets, which he’s now learning to do.’

‘He won’t film all the flight sequences — it’s too dangerous — but he will fly some, making him the first actor in cinema history to do so. The producers would prefer not to put their leading man, not to mention their whole film, at risk.’

As we have already explained the movie was assigned a theatrical release date of Jul. 12, 2019, last year, but in September Paramount announced that had delayed the sequel nearly an entire year, assigning it a new release date of Jun. 26, 2020.

Noteworthy as already reported Maverick’s rides for the Top Gun sequel will be a cool special painted F/A-18F Super Hornet (which experienced a mid-air issue while it was flying with Tom Cruise onboard in September) and a new motorcycle that Tom Cruise already drove around the airfield (as he did on a Kawasaki Ninja in 1986 original) as shown in first pictures from Top Gun: Maverick set.

Tom Cruise teased the start of filming on the long-awaited Top Gun sequel on May 31, 2018, with a tweet featuring an image of an older Capt. Pete Mitchell standing in a flight suit with his famous HGU-33 helmet (that wore to fly his F-14A Tomcat) in hand.

Top Gun: Maverick will also see Kenny Loggins re-recording ‘DangerZone’ for the movie as well as Harold Faltermeyer and Hans Zimmer joining forces on the score for the movie.

H/T Christian Nentwig

Photo by @Jeremiejca17 Twitter Account

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, arriving on Jan. 15. The men and women of carrier air wing two (CVW-2) were ready for combat when called upon by their country. In the early morning hours of Jan. 17, Ranger’s air wing participated in the first airstrikes of Operation Desert Storm. VAW-116 E-2C Hawkeyes ranged all the way up the Persian Gulf to keep track of all aircraft in the vicinity. Iraq’s actions the previous decade with its Mirage F.1EQs armed with Exocet anti-ship missiles gave USN planners serious concern. The Iraqi Exocet missiles had achieved success against Iranian ships and the USS Stark, so combat air patrols (CAPs) of USN F-14 Tomcats were placed in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea to deter any threats coming out over the water.

LT Stuart “Meat” Broce from VF-1 “Wolfpack” on the USS Ranger was involved in these CAPs the first night of the war. Stu recollects, “Some (F-14s) went along on strikes in Kuwait. I got to CAP over the gulf to ‘de-louse’ the strike packages heading south. Lots of radar contacts, but all were just returning strike aircraft, some with IFF forgotten in the excitement. Joining up on supersonic targets at night to VID turned out to be impractical. We were actually laughing at the futility.” This trend would continue for the majority of the war and their only opportunity to perform this mission would be denied. On Jan. 24, a pair of Iraqi Mirage F.1EQ-4s that were streaking into the Persian Gulf wasn’t downed by Tomcats but by a Saudi F-15C Eagle that shot down both intruders with AIM-9P Sidewinders.

On Feb. 6, two VF-1 F-14As were assigned to escort another air wing asset on a rare daytime mission for Ranger’s air wing. LT Stuart Broce manned Wichita 103 BuNo 162603 with VF-1’s commanding officer, CDR Ron “Bongo” McElraft, as his radar intercept officer (RIO). Stenciled on the tails of their block 135 Tomcat were the words “El Coyote”. Their assigned wingman experienced issues getting to the catapult so the spare was launched instead. The spare crew consisted of LT Scott “Ash” Malynn and his RIO LT Dan “Zimby” Zimberoff. Both Tomcats were armed with four AIM-7M Sparrows and four AIM-9M Sidewinders. After launching from the USS Ranger, they were contacted by the monitoring VAW-116 E-2C Hawkeye for alternate tasking. A different controller then told them to tank and then proceed to a CAP station up past the city of Basra. After tanking from a USAF KC-135, the two Tomcats proceeded north to their new CAP. Once on station for about ten minutes, the AWACS controller excitedly announced, “Wolfpack, engage bandit, vector 210-36, angels low, nose on!” At this point in the intercept, Stu remembers, “I thought it would be an unknown number of MiG-29s, kind of mentally prepping for the worst case.” Considering they were well into the area of Iraq where USAF F-15C Eagles were routinely engaging the Iraqi Air Force, his worry was justified. The lead was passed to Ash and Zimby since their jet’s radar was working properly and the two grey Tomcats with distinctive wolves on their tails accelerated out in afterburner towards the merge. Stu said, “Even without a radar the jet was pretty capable, but our training was unmatched.” As the miles counted down, Zimby, one of the most proficient RIOs in the squadron, still could not get a radar contact. Soon, AWACS came over the intercom and said, “Merged plot!” At first, neither crew could spot any bandit however Bongo called out, “Come left! Helicopter!” Pulling 7G’s in a left-hand turn, Stu visually acquired the desert-camouflaged Iraqi Mi-8 Hip armed transport helicopter.

While searching for a tone, Stu’s F-14 rapidly approached the desert floor until finally, he got a firm lock with his heat-seeking AIM-9M Sidewinder and fired. Stu recalls, “It came off the upper left rail. It surprised me how loud it was.” The missile impacted the Mi-8 inside its starboard exhaust port and detonated. The Mi-8 exploded and disintegrated as it crashed to the desert floor. Flying away from the wreckage of their kill, Bongo contacted AWACS and said, “Uh, splash one, uh…helicopter!” The two VF-1 jets joined two other Wolfpack Tomcats while tanking from a KC-135 once again and returned to their CAP to patrol once more. After landing that night back aboard the USS Ranger, Stu and Bongo were congratulated by a swarm of people and Stu was given the umbilical cord from the AIM-9M he used to dispatch the helicopter.

The jet they flew for their kill was given a helicopter kill mark under the canopy. It was the first recorded air-to-air kill against an Iraqi helicopter in Desert Storm. Following the kill, VF-1 continued to perform its assigned missions, often under the cover of darkness, with the utmost professionalism until the ceasefire on Feb. 28. The Wolfpack would go on to complete one more cruise on the USS Ranger in 1992-1993 in support of Operation Southern Watch and Operation Restore Hope before returning home to NAS Miramar and being disestablished on Sep. 30, 1993.

Sources:

• U.S. Navy
• D. Stuart Broce
• Dan Zimberoff
• Tom Cooper
• Pete Clayton
• Michael Alvarez
• Meridia Hobby

Top Image Credit: National Archives/PH2 Bruce Trombecky, USN and Tom Cooper Collection

Artwork courtesy of AircraftProfilePrints.com

“In this particular mission, not only were we refueling at night, but we were doing so on top of a thunderstorm,” Keith “Virus” Schomig, former F-14A Tomcat RIO with VF-211 Checkmates

Taken by former Tomcat RIO Keith “Virus” Schomig from the cockpit of his F-14 in February 2002, the cool video in this post shows VF-211 Checkmates F-14A fighters taking fuel from an RAF Tristar tanker during a night mission over Afghanistan.

According to Schomig “This was a night mission over Afghanistan in January or February 2002. Back then, virtually the whole country was enemy territory. The nearest divert was in Pakistan. This made night refueling especially stressful–if you couldn’t get gas, you may well be out of options. What would cause you to not get gas? Well, if you can’t get in the basket. Or worse–and as happened on a few occasions–if you stab the basket too hard, causing the hose to crack like a whip, and ripping the basket clean off its hose. Now you’re not only out of gas, but you have no means to get more.

“In this particular mission, not only were we refueling at night, but we were doing so on top of a thunderstorm (you can see the lightning in the clouds as we approach the British RAF tanker). Some nights are rougher than others, and this time it took my pilot several tries to get in the basket, with the frustration building each time. He stays calm, however, and finally gets in. We take our gas and head back out on patrol.”

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Checkmates deployed with Carrier Air Wing Nine, in an accelerated schedule that had VF-211 aircraft flying combat missions over Afghanistan by December. The Checkmates left their mark on Operation Enduring Freedom during a three-week battle named Operation Anaconda where they flew day and night sorties to defend coalition forces and eliminate Al-Qaeda resistance. The Checkmates returned after flying 1,250 combat missions and were then assigned to Carrier Air Wing One.

VF-211’s performance in 2002 was recognized throughout the fleet. For their achievements, they earned the West Coast Battle “E” for battle efficiency from Commander Naval Air Force Pacific Fleet, the Grand Slam Award for excellence in Air-to-Air employment from Commander Naval Air Force Atlantic Fleet, and the Clifton Award for the most outstanding overall performance in battle efficiency and employment from Commander Naval Air Forces. Additionally, for their precision and innovation in strike warfare, they were awarded the coveted VADM “Sweetpea” Allen Precision Strike Award.

The last squadron to fly the venerable F-14A Tomcat, the Checkmates deployed aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65) in October of 2003 in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (OIF and OEF). The squadron flew over 450 combat hours during October, November, and December in support of coalition efforts.

VF-211 was redesignated Strike Fighter Squadron 211 (VFA-211) after successfully completing the transition to the F/A-18F Super Hornet in 2005 at NAS Lemoore, CA.