Tomcat gets its last licks

[cec]

July 28, 2006

Tomcat gets its last licks
‘Muscle car’ fighter takes final flight

By Mark D. Faram
Times staff writer

The last of a special breed: An F-14D Tomcat assigned to the “Tomcatters” of Fighter Squadron 31 (VF-31) sit on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). — Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Randall Damm / U.S. Navy
Aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt — The Navy’s last eight F-14 Tomcats, and the sailors who fly and maintain them, made their final cats and traps off the Virginia coast on July 28, marking the last at-sea mission of the venerable warplane.
The curtain won’t completely come down on the famous F-14 until the final three aircraft depart Oceana, Va., in late September to be preserved in the desert as part of the “war reserve” located at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. But the plane’s aircraft carrier connection was severed when the last plane left the Theodore Roosevelt’s flight deck for the Virginia shore.
Saying goodbye was understandably hard for many. And some kept holding on.
“We’ve still got 11 operational Tomcats and have eight of them out here on the boat,” said Lt. Justin “Juggs” Halligan, one of Fighter Squadron 31’s 14 pilots who made the last weeklong cruise. He spoke just hours before the last cat shot.
But everyone onboard the carrier knew that July 28 was it. And Halligan had done the math. He knew that only eight out of 14 pilots would get the “final” flights under their belts.
“There’s only eight aircraft out here, only a certain number of seats, so those final flights are all based on seniority, from the commanding officer on down,” said Halligan, one of the squadron’s most junior pilots. “And that’s why I know I’ll be walking off the boat in Norfolk.
“But that’s OK,” he added. “I’ve flown on this trip, and that’s good enough for me, to be part of history that way.”
That’s stating it mildly. Halligan made the F-14’s last “combat drop” over Iraq in February. He and his radar intercept officer, Lt. Billy Frank, can both take that memory with them as they begin their transition into F/A-18 Super Hornets later this year.
For others, such as the squadron’s jet and airframe mechanics, the experience was also bittersweet.
“This is basically my sundown, too,” said Lt. Tom “Tommy” Oberg, the squadron’s maintenance and material officer. “As goes the Tomcats, so go I.”
Oberg is a limited-duty officer and has been turning wrenches on Tomcats, or supervising others who do, for the last 21 years.
At the other end of the spectrum is Aviation Machinist’s Mate Airman John Velez. Originally from Colombia, Velez joined the Navy just two years ago as a nondesignated airman and struck for AD from “the line.”
Right now, he’s a plane captain; his bird carries the side number 110 and is adorned with World War II nose art of a kneeling young woman alongside the words “Sweet Little Miss.”
“I would not have expected being a part of Tomcat history, but I’m very pleased it happened,” said Velez, who became a U.S. citizen two months ago. It is Sweet Little Miss that was scheduled to make the last official trap July 28. It was set to then turn around and carry the squadron’s skipper, Cmdr. Jim “Puck” Howe, and his RIO, Lt. Luke “Donny” Swain, off the bow on the final catapult around 4 p.m. that day.
“It is hard work, these Tomcats,” Velez said. “But I will also miss them very much.”
“It’s a love-hate relationship that us maintainers have with the Tomcat,” agreed Aviation Structural Mechanic 2nd Class (AW) Matt Porter.
The Tomcat is going out on top. Halligan said. His squadron has deployed three times in the past four years. The run started in 2002 when it left with the Abraham Lincoln for that carrier’s 10-month marathon deployment that included being rerouted to the Persian Gulf for the opening rounds of Operation Iraqi Freedom in February 2003.
Ten months later, the squadron left on another Western Pacific cruise on the carrier John C. Stennis, which took the group to Alaska and Japan. Another 10 months after returning home, the carrier headed east to join the TR’s wing for a trip to the Persian Gulf and the final combat cruise of the Tomcat.
“We were on station over there for four months and each of us averaged 300 flight hours,” Halligan said. “We called it the Tomcat super cruise.”
It’s been 32 years since the Tomcat’s first deployment on the aircraft carrier Enterprise. That maiden deployment saw the aircraft flying cover for the evacuation of Saigon in 1975. The aircraft’s final combat flights took place this spring over Iraq, providing support to U.S. forces battling insurgents.
Halligan described the Tomcat as a “muscle car,” developed to tangle with the Soviets during the Cold War. Its replacement, the F/A-18E and F models are “sports cars,” he said. The aircraft was adapted over the years to carry bombs and earned another nickname: the “bombcat.”
Although the plane’s avionics have been upgraded over the years, it still looks and sounds like the aircraft that replaced another icon of naval aviation, the F-4 Phantom.
While the plane will be gone, its final squadron remains. VF-31 will even keep its nickname.
“We will continue to be the Tomcatters,” Howe said of his squadron. “You can bet on that.”

Photo gallery: The final flight



http://www.navytimes.com/print.php?f...25-1985799.php