Parting With the Tomcat Still Stings
An era came to a close on July 28th 2006 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) when pilot Lieutenant Blake Coleman and radar intercept officer (RIO) Lieutenant Commander Dave Lauderbaugh were launched off catapult three at 1642. They were flying F-14D Tomcat BuNo 163417. The VF-31 Tomcatters aircraft Coleman and Lauderbaugh were flying that afternoon over the Atlantic Ocean was the last, the final, F-14 Tomcat ever catapulted off an aircraft carrier.
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The Final Fighter Fling
We plan to do a more in-depth article about the F-14 Tomcat the next time a significant Tomcat anniversary rolls around. Our video selection is related to the end of the Tomcat era. It’s a bittersweet look at the state of Naval Aviation at the time when F-14 Tomcat squadrons were in the process of transitioning to Super Hornets. There are some veiled digs at Hornets and Hornet types and some that aren’t veiled even a little bit. Plenty of great flying footage and some great music made the final edit too. You’re definitely good for several LOL moments (even if you weren’t a fighter guy) and maybe even a sigh or a sniffle. It was a tough time for the VF community, but the producers, in this writer’s opinion anyway, nailed it. We hope you enjoy this, the not quite completely 100% PC (call it PC-ish) last Fighter Fling video ever produced: Fighter Fling 2004.
The Aged But Still-Capable Warrior
Tomcats joined the fleet in 1973. Born from experience and lessons learned in the skies over Vietnam and tasked with defending the largest of American naval assets (and the biggest targets), Tomcats were capable of so much more than the previous Navy fleet defenders like the F-8 Crusader and the F-4 Phantom II. Both were great jets, but the Tomcat and its Phoenix missile system were built for cold war fleet defense by shooting down large numbers of attackers beyond the horizon. A high compliment can be paid to the Tomcat; it never had to do the job for which it and its missiles system were primarily designed. One of the most complicated and sophisticated aircraft ever deployed aboard aircraft carriers, the Tomcat was flown by the very best of the naval aviators coming out of Naval Air Training Command, which was fitting because the Tomcat demanded the very best of her crews.
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The Bombcat Bows Out
Later in its service life the Tomcat took up bombing as a way to pay some of the bills. Equipped with the Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) pod, the “Bombcat” became a very accurate bomber without letting itself go as a fighter. When the Tomcat was retired many Tomcat pilots were able to transition to its replacement, the McDonnell Douglas (Boeing) F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets. Although the F/A-18F primarily took over the fleet defense role, both F/A-18 Super Hornet variants are considered dual-role, fighter and attack, aircraft.
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Author’s note: There is conflicting information about Felix 112’s identity for this event. Some sources indicate that the jet Coleman and Lauderbaugh were flying that day was BuNo 164341. I went with the official Navy history of the event, as I nearly always do, which indicates the jet was BuNo 163417. Even Grumman documentation indicates 163417 was retired to AMARG in March 2006- months before the event. Now 164341 did land without the canopy or the VIP passenger in the back seat one memorable day, but that’s another story.