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F-14 Tomcat Parking Only


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Great pics, Reddog ! :whistle:

Nice seeing the Sluggers on Super Sara ...

Were these 'Cats referred to F-14A+s at this point or were they re-designated F-14Bs by then ?

Just curious ...

Thanks ...

Gregg

Gregg,

They where still referred to as A+ back then, the B designation didn't go into effect until 1 May 91. However, it took over ten years to get the A+ designation changed in the maintenance manuals.

Reddog :coolio:

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Gregg,

They where still referred to as A+ back then, the B designation didn't go into effect until 1 May 91. However, it took over ten years to get the A+ designation changed in the maintenance manuals.

Reddog :coolio:

Ah, thanks Reddog ...

Interesting tidbit about how long it took to work the 'A+" designation out of manuals ... :whistle:

Gregg

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Wow!

This thread has some pretty great & outstanding pics in it. Its took me most of my busy :salute: night shift to look through them.

Cheers for all the guys who have taken time to take, scan, post pics up. Some of them must be pretty rare.

I keep seeing mention of different people saying they are doing books, is there anywhere these are available, my bookshelf is sadly lacking in Tomcat books.

Cheers,

Julien

Edited by Julien (UK)
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Thanks again for the great pics, Reddog.

*right click, save picture as...* :woot.gif:

VF-103 Slugger BUNO for Desert Storm

200 - 162921

201 - 193219

202 - 161610

203 - 162920

204 - 163215

205 - 163216

207 - 162927

210 - 161428

211 - 1614??

212 - 161430

Wasnt one of those Tomcats lost in Desert Storm while on a TARPS mission ?

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Gregg,

They where still referred to as A+ back then, the B designation didn't go into effect until 1 May 91. However, it took over ten years to get the A+ designation changed in the maintenance manuals.

Reddog :woot.gif:

Hi Reddog , I have seen in a friends logbook the designation : F-14C , while he flew the F-14A+ in VF-211 ........ Did the pilots and NFO's from VF-74 and VF-103 use the same designation in their logs ????

Cheers , Henk

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Hi Reddog , I have seen in a friends logbook the designation : F-14C , while he flew the F-14A+ in VF-211 ........ Did the pilots and NFO's from VF-74 and VF-103 use the same designation in their logs ????

Cheers , Henk

To my knowledge they used the A+ designation in their logbooks, we never used the C designation.

BTW, the aircrew didn't even update their own log books, they had a YN3 from Admin do it for them at night in the Ready Room.

Reddog :salute:

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The 3 overhead nose pics are off 212 along with the black/white on the previous page and a couple of nose shots. 212 was not on a TARPS mission when it was shot down (I as the QAR on deck that night, it was an o-dark thirty launch). It was loaded with 3x2x2, 500 rounds of HEI, 40 x RR-129 and 20 x MJU-8. It also had two tanks. It was a TARPS Jet (our best one) but again, was not one a TARPS Mission at the time.

Reddog :salute:

Thanks for the great info, Reddog. I meant he was correct in his thinking that one of those planes was shot down. According to the source I use, AA212 was on an escort mission covering a Prowler carrying HARM's covering an A-6 strike mission. Now to my question. Not being familiar with the correct jargon, what exactly is '3x2x2, 40 x RR-129 and 20 x MJU-8'?

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The 3 overhead nose pics are off 212 along with the black/white on the previous page and a couple of nose shots. 212 was not on a TARPS mission when it was shot down (I as the QAR on deck that night, it was an o-dark thirty launch). It was loaded with 3x2x2, 500 rounds of HEI, 40 x RR-129 and 20 x MJU-8. It also had two tanks. It was a TARPS Jet (our best one) but again, was not one a TARPS Mission at the time.

Reddog :salute:

Thanks for the correction. First class info ! :salute:

Do you have more information about the loss of this Tomcat ? I have heard two different stories about it. First story, it was shotdown by a SA-2 SAM. Second story, the pilot lost control of his aircraft while trying to evade the SAM and crashed... :unsure:

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Thanks for the correction. First class info ! :salute:

Do you have more information about the loss of this Tomcat ? I have heard two different stories about it. First story, it was shotdown by a SA-2 SAM. Second story, the pilot lost control of his aircraft while trying to evade the SAM and crashed... :salute:

There is a great feature in 'Gulf Air War Debrief' that tells about the shootdown by the pilot, Lt. Devon Jones. He mentions he 'tallied a SAM coming up through the clouds'.

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Thanks for the correction. First class info ! :salute:

Do you have more information about the loss of this Tomcat ? I have heard two different stories about it. First story, it was shotdown by a SA-2 SAM. Second story, the pilot lost control of his aircraft while trying to evade the SAM and crashed... :salute:

There is a great feature in 'Gulf Air War Debrief' that tells about the shootdown by the pilot, Lt. Devon Jones. He mentions he 'tallied a SAM coming up through the clouds', and 'the SAM tracked us, came up towards our tail and detonated with a bright, white flash'.

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I don't remember it being part of the squadron during DS but do remember it from my Pukin Dog days. The BUNO for VF 103 where taken from a picture I could find and some other research from the web, plus a little bit of memory. I hope I got them right but am not 100% sure of them. I do know that the three TARPs bird we had started out with 1614 BUNO, just can't remember what 211 was.

What book do you have?

Reddog :cheers:

The Osprey book on Tomcats in Operation Enduring or Iraqi Freedom I forget which but its the one with the VF-2 F-14D in a nose dive on the cover. Their is a short paragraph in the back that says that A/C served with VF-103 when it entered service and at least through DS. This is the plane I keep asking everyone for information on as I want to do a montage of models of it since it now resides less then an hour away from me.

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Time to pay a visit to "Slugger-Ville"

All photos are of the 90/91 Desert Shield/Desert Storm Cruise on the Saratoga.

All aircraft had the same markings with the exception of Modex, BUNO and Aircrew names.

VF103DS004.jpg

Reddog

Reddog-

Thanks for sharing, and for this one especially. I didn't know F-14s could have an AIM-7 behind the -54s. :shoot: I also like the effect of the multiple colors of the fins, warheads, guidance units, etc. on the Phoenixes (Phoenii?).

Is this what you mean by a 3x2x2 load (I'm guessing this is shorthand for the numbers of AIM-7 x AIM-9 x AIM-54)?

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Reddog-

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Now I've got another question. On the 1x1x1 missile load with the LANTIRN and bombs, why not put a second -9 on the opposite side of the first? Neither the LANTIRN or Phoenix should be in the way, and the Sidewinder doesn't weigh too much.

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Wasn't our call, what ever STRIKE OPS says on the load plan is what we loaded. My take on it was that it was not needed and why fly around with something you don't need. Plus run the risk of screwing up the missile and breaking it, there are only so many on board.

Also, even though it was a 200 lb missile, it still produced drag and it took 200 lbs of fuel away during landing.

Reddog :salute:

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Awesome pics, Reddog! Thanks! Saved nearly all of them. Any chance of some "Brand X" (VF-74) pics? :whistle:

And off the subject of Tomcats for a moment, but on the subject of that deployment, the gonavy.jp site lists VS-30 as having 11 S-3s at the time, but in looking at photos, I can't seem to ever see more than 2 or 3 on deck. Does 11 seem high to you, or would 7, 8 or 9 have been stowed in the hangar bay?

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