21 December 2020 marked exactly half a century after the Grumman F-14 Tomcat had made its first flight in the USA. This was the beginning of an impressive career of a twin-engined swingwing fighter that operated for 34 years in the US Navy. During that period, the Tomcat was the primary US Navy multirole air defence fi ghter and a main asset with all the Carrier Air Wings (CVW) for aircraft carrier-based air operations. In paying tribute to this 50 years milestone, we go back to September 2005, the start of an USN aircraft carrier cruise for the last time with operational F-14s onboard.
Departure
Roosevelt (CVN-71) departed from its homeport Naval Station Norfolk USA, for a scheduled deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Its mission was to provide support to US and coalition forces in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Maritime Security Operations (MSO). After two weeks of deployment, the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (TRCSG), comprising a total of 5 ships and a submarine, entered the Mediterranean Sea to conduct training with local allies and make port calls in Palma de Mallorca, Spain and Napels, Italy. By early October 2005, the Roosevelt with embarked Carrier Air Wing 8, arrived at the USN 5th Fleet area to relieve another carrier USS Nimitz and conducted missions out of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea.
TRCSG and CVW
Total complement of the TRCSG went up to 6970 men and women, of which the majority were on the command aircraft carrier with their 3200 ship’s crew and 2480 Carrier Air Wing crew. CVW 8 consisted, besides the Tomcats, 2 squadrons of F/A-18C Hornets and one of Electronic Warfare EA-6B Prowlers. In addition, S-3B Vikings, E-2C Hawkeyes, SH-60F and HH-60H Seahawks were deployed plus two C-2A Greyhounds for Carrier Onboard Deliveries (COD).
The F-14 Tomcat units
The embarked Tomcats were amongst the last of two USN front line fighter units operating the F-14D, being VF- 31Tomcatters, having 11 aircraft onboard and VF-213 Black Lions with 12 aircraft. In late October 2005, while on station in the Persian Gulf. I met with VF- 31 Commanding Officer (CO) Rick Labranche and VF-213 CO Dane Cave. CO Labranche, with more than 3000 flight hours of which 2000 were on F-14 B and D models, stated that planned withdrawal of USN F-14 operations was “an inevitable event and made from an efficiency perspective.” Extensive hours of maintenance after each flight (crew worked 12-16 hours a day, 7 days a week to make the jets available for next flights), the pressure on the F-14 maintenance crews was enormous and was to be brought back to acceptable levels. Also, the strategic USN plan to reduce the number of different aircraft types in service at that time and an on-course delivery scheme of F/A-18E and F Super Hornets, successor of the F-14, pushed forward the decision for early retirement of the F-14s.
The Tomcatters (with Felix the Cat as their squadron logo) were to transit to the single-seat F/A-18E in summer 2006. Consequently, the squadron would become VFA-31 Fighting 31 achieving their operational status in about 5-6 months on the new type and available for new carrier deployment after another six months. CO Dan Cave of VF-213 recalled that his unit would begin transit to the twin-seat model F/A-18F Super Hornet immediately after finishing that cruise which was planned for March 2006. Dan Cave, with 3500 flight hours on the F-14, was “proud to lead the Tomcat unit in the aircraft’s final months of service”. His commanding role was rather new as he had assumed CO’s responsibilities just 12 days earlier during an airborne change of command ceremony while two F-14Ds made a carrier flyby.
Operational Routine
A daily flight routine in the Persian Gulf normally included two launches, as CO Labranche explained, with the first executed around noon. F-14 missions were flown in 6-7 hours, of which 3 hours were above the allied battle groups on the ground to provide support and protection. During a typical mission, the Tomcats were aerial refuelled several times to continue their mission time over Iraq and then return to USS Roosevelt. Just before arrival and recovery of the first aircraft another group of aircraft was launched around dawn for the 2nd wave which would fly similar 6 hours missions during the night.
VF-31 Commanding Officer Rick Lobranche
Immediately upon arrival in the Persian Gulf, CVW 8 had its first sorties launched in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Tomcats of VF-31 had bombed targets north-east of Baghdad, a known Iraqi facility where insurgents manufactured improvised explosive devices (IEDs). During November 2005, the aircraft of CVW 8 participated in Operation Steel Curtain (OSC), carrying out strikes against terrorist targets in support of coalition troops in Iraq. OSC was an offensive aimed to prevent cells of Al Qaeda from entering Iraq through the Syrian border. The contribution of CVW 8 aircraft to OSC came to some 400 sorties. In early February 2006, USS Theodore Roosevelt had the last recovery of an F-14 Tomcat from a combat mission, in which the VF-31 Tomcat was recorded as the last USN drop a bomb in a combat mission. USS Roosevelt then left the 5th Fleet area and after some 6th Fleet supported port visits in the Mediterranean, undertook its trans Atlantic return voyage to the USA. In the 6-month deployment of the Roosevelt, VF-31 and VF-213 had together carried out 1163 combat sorties totalling 6876 flight hours and dropped 9500 pounds of ordnance in reconnaissance, surveillance, and close air support missions. The CVW 8 aircraft flew a cumulative of more than 5500 sorties, logging 21000 flight hours during this specific CVN-71 cruise.
A few months later, in September 2006, had the F-14s performing their last flypast over NAS Norfolk marking the F-14’s farewell in the US Navy.
Text and photos by Peter ten Berg