A comment about the retiring of the mighty Tomcat.

[navychief 1]

It was 1973, and I had just reported to NATC Patuxent River, MD, to North Site Maintenance.

 

I was immediately assigned to the Line Division, to begin training as an A-7 Corsair Plane Captain.

 

The maintenance outfit I was assigned to, as with most of NAS Pax River, had a lot of civilian contract maintenance. The F-14 Tomcat was new to the fleet, and North Site Maintenance was constantly performing tests on this revolutionary aircraft.

 

It was truly a sight to behold. The Tomcat was, and still is, sheer beauty. Why, it looks as if it is flying at Mach 2 just sitting in chocks on the flightline.

 

One particular day, however, I recall a tragic accident. The maintenance crew (all civilians) were conducting some type of run-up on the engines. All of a sudden, all of the control surfaces went haywire. The flaps went to full down position, and crushed the operator of the NC-8 that was providing power for startup. The computer which controlled the flight surfaces malfunctioned. I don't know if this was truly the case, but that's the story that was passed around. It was the first time I ever witnessed a fatality. Immediately following that accident, they instituted a policy of attaching an extension to the NC-8 cord to place it out of range of aircraft flight control surfaces.

 

I am sad that the Tomcat is being phased out. It has served the US Navy proudly, to be sure.

 

GO NAVAIR.

 

Navy Chief

[Chaingun 0]

I hate to see her go also, spent 8 years with this ole girl. Best darn weapons system around. Nothing like final checkin one of these birds getting ready to take a cat. The noise, heat, the sheer energy of the shot. Being that close to 60 ft. of flame coming out of them engines as she goes through the zones. Almost brings a tear to the eye.

 

The True star of the movie TopGun (slight re-phrase) "The ONLY star"

[CowboyTodd41 134]

My dad had told me that they had been completely phased out and I didn't beleive him. Well...damn, time to go watch Top Gun again!

[Dutchy 0]

Tomcat, a big name in the aviation world. When you say that, everybody knows which plane you meant. Plane with history, to late for Vietnam, on time for Libya in the eighties and played in the movie Top Gun. Everybody wanna be a pilot in those days in a Tomcat.

 

When is the last day coming when that plane fly?

 

Salute

Dutchy

[navychief 1]

There's a good article about this very subject at:

 

http://www.news.navy.mil/search/print.asp?...getype=1&page=1

 

As a side note, I once posted a story about my ride in a F-14A, way back in the early 70s. It was with LCDR Kurt Dose, who was with the test center at the time.

 

I vividly remember the ride, especially the feeling of the afterburners kicking against my back. LCDR Dose put it to full throttle, and flew the jet straight up. Unbelievable.

 

I will never forget it.

 

1.5 hours of pure excitement.

 

Go Navy.

 

Navy Chief

[firehawkordy 34]

Chief as far as I know the only Tomcats on the West Coast are VX-9's birds at NAWS Pt. Mugu. The Super Hornet is alrady establishing itself at NAS Lemore. I never worked on the F-14 per say, however the first ordnance item I ever worked on was a Tomcats centerline rack. I was an undesignated striker and looking for a rate. I was asked by this old AO chief ,who I'm sorry to sayI've forgotten his name, if I wanted to work at the AO shop in AIMD. I spent my time enjoying the work and I new what I was going to be. If a Tomcat had'nt broke it's rack that weekend I might have become, God help me, a Mech. :P

 

Long live the F-14, the only reason that there are midget AO's. I watched VF-301's ordies give themselves head injuries loading the fuselage racks with BDU-45's . But damn, could that bird carry what they loaded.

[navychief 1]

Can you just imagine if the Tomcat had been used in 'Nam what hell it would have rained down on the Vietcong????

 

I would not have wanted to be a gook, seeing a Tomkitty come screamin' over the treetops.

 

Heck, I am sure the Phantoms had them running for their tunnels.

 

Navy Chief

[firehawkordy 34]

Chief

I just found out that the Reserve P-3 units are to be disbanded in the near future. Makes sense in this case the as the ASW mission is one that the fleet should be able to handle. As far as I know by the end of the year all but two units I served in will be memories.

 

This was taken at NAS Moffet Field back in 1989, I was launching the CO and COMPATWING10.

[navychief 1]

What about the other P-3 squadrons, Charlie?

 

What is the projected timeframe to transition to the next generation aircraft?

 

NC

[firehawkordy 34]

Chief I have no idea on the timeframe for the next platform. The last time they tried to replace the Orion was in the mid-80's with the P-7. That got canned because Lockheed fouled up the diameter of the fuselage and then wanted more money to fix it. At that time the hope was to bring in an A/C that would be a replacement but also have commonallity with the P-3.

Right now if I remember right all NAVAIRES VP squadrons are to be disestablished in the next two or three years. I'll have to ask around as to when exactly.

The fleet will continue the ASW/AS mission. Not a bad move in this case as there are too many aircrew and aircraft and not enough work to go around. Plus the skills used in hunting subs are perishable, you have to do the job constantly and once a month is not good enough these days. The trend is to use deisle-electric boats in shallow water and when running on batteries those boats are real quiet.

 

I'll keep you posted on this,it looks like NAVAIRES is going to take a big hit soon, CVW-20 is on the block too, they will go when the JFK is retired. It looks like the CV's will be using four fixed wing airframes in the near future, three as the Prowler is set to be phased out also.

[Foofighter 0]

Took this during the 82 Med cruise. I remember the first time that I saw a flight of F14s fly by in formation with wings back, I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

 

Foofighter

Edited August 22, 2004 by Foofighter

[Foofighter 0]

Heres another pic that may bring back a few memories...

[firehawkordy 34]

Heres another pic that may bring back a few memories...

 

 

Agggh!!!!!Must fight the nightmares,must not think of the coop! Too late, have the urge for MidRats!!! Curse you Foofighter!!! :P

[navychief 1]

Here's a sea story.

 

There was a Senior Chief in VFA-83 who I could not stand. We constantly butted heads. His name was Lankford. Anyway, we worked opposite shifts. He worked the 0700 to 1900 Maint. Control shift, and I worked 1900 to 0700 shift as the Aircraft Div. CPO. Smoking is not allowed in the CPO coop (or "Goat Locker", as is commonly known) but that jerk would, and blow smoke into my rack area when I was sleeping. I would wake up choking.

 

So I decided to get some revenge.

 

I went to the CPO galley one night, and ate a considerable about of baked beans with bacon, and just for "flavor", I topped it off with some boiled eggs.

 

I let things "ripen" for a while, and then backed my butt up to Lankford's rack and let it rip.

 

Not only did I wake that (expletive witheld) up, but I cleared out the entire coop.

 

He didn't bother me again with his smoke. Heh, heh, heh....

 

Navy Chief

 

By the way, that's not me in the picture. I found it on a search, and thought it was a cool picture. Typical sailor, though. Especially of an Ordie!!! Heh, heh.

[firehawkordy 34]

Regarding ordies and gas, I was in shop that most of the AO's could fart at will. If that wasn't bad enough, we would wait until Quaters for Muster, when we had a captive audience.

 

The best any of us did was on det to Fairchild AFB. We had to share an armory with an AFRES unit and I and my LPO were getting fed up with their whining about thier 12/12 shifts when we were doing flight quarters. The whole shop went out for dinner one evening and had Indian and Thai food. Then we went out drinking and got in to a contest to see how many pickled eggs we could eat.

 

The next morning we had fouled the air so badly that the AF troops refused to come in the shop. What was worse was that we were walking through MaintControl emitting SBD's. That was after we found out that the Chiefs that had us doing flight quarters were going home after eight hours.

[Foofighter 0]

Firehawkordy,

That was funny!

 

Hey Chief,

It looks like that Ordie invented variable thrust :D .

 

Foofighter.

Edited August 23, 2004 by Foofighter

[Scout_51 0]

I vividly remember the ride, especially the feeling of the afterburners kicking against my back. LCDR Dose put it to full throttle, and flew the jet straight up. Unbelievable.

 

I will never forget it.

Ohhhhh!!!! I remember backseating a ta-4j across texas,was bit exciting counting rabbit holes....but your ride sounds quite exciting..

[Scout_51 0]

God help me, a Mech.

Or even worse a snipe!

[Scout_51 0]

Can you just imagine if the Tomcat had been used in 'Nam what hell it would have rained down on the Vietcong????

 

I would not have wanted to be a gook, seeing a Tomkitty come screamin' over the treetops.

 

Heck, I am sure the Phantoms had them running for their tunnels.

 

Navy Chief

well Chief,I have a soft spot for the ole SPAD(yeah the A-1) was rather fun watch one of them stay on station fort over 2 or 3 hrs just pumping out ordnance and 20mm rounds!..then there was the scooter,hell I was told by a marine in danang that a lot of times they would load ordnance Almost equaled that little birds weight! yeah the F-4's DID good,sometimes come over the ridge at full burner! just a attention getter for BOTH sides..then they would get to some serious work...one time I got to see a f-105 doing its thing,damm man that was one big mother but it did drop some serious stuff,they also took the hint from Marine Air and would scream full burner low on the ground,but then again that bird was the fastest one on the deck,thats what it was designed to do...yeah we could and DID bring down some serious firepower when we needed it..

[Scout_51 0]

The last time they tried to replace the Orion was in the mid-80's with the P-7.

I remember there was talk of doing what the canuks did..put s-3 avionics in a p-3 airframe,they ever did that?.also heard bout putting those avionics on a 737 airframe..

[Scout_51 0]

Heres another pic that may bring back a few memories...

Gee you had time to sleep with boots off??????????????????????????????what kind of boat were you in????????? :D

[Scout_51 0]

Heres another pic that may bring back a few memories...

Gee you had time to sleep with boots off??????????????????????????????what kind of boat were you in????????? :D

[Scout_51 0]

Not only did I wake that (expletive witheld) up, but I cleared out the entire coop.

 

He didn't bother me again with his smoke. Heh, heh, heh....

Tho I bet you really became popular in the locker.....

[Scout_51 0]

That was after we found out that the Chiefs that had us doing flight quarters were going home after eight hours.

Please FireHawk,those GUYS were NOT Chiefs,they were e-7,8 or 9..The ones I knew would actually go and get grease on their khakis..but there were some such as you mentioned,and we would say chief as such,not Chief(as RESPECT)

[firehawkordy 34]

That was after we found out that the Chiefs that had us doing flight quarters were going home after eight hours.

Please FireHawk,those GUYS were NOT Chiefs,they were e-7,8 or 9..The ones I knew would actually go and get grease on their khakis..but there were some such as you mentioned,and we would say chief as such,not Chief(as RESPECT)

Scout, you are so right about them not being real Chiefs. I have known quite a few REAL Chiefs and I looked up to them. Hell, my Father is a Chief, albeit a Blackshoe,but still THE Chief at home. My best man at mine and Pam's wedding was my old Command Master Chief. He and another Chief took me under their wing and raised me to be the best AO1 that I could be.

 

This is me and AOC Gary Thompson on Det to NAS Moffet.The SOB just told me what he had done to my coffee cup while I was doing a recovery. He had a wicked sense of humor and a mother bears devotion to his troops.