Tomcats Forever 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 21st 47 years ago marks the birth of our beloved F-14 ” Tomcat”.  F-14 would be “Grumman Ironwork’s” last Navy Fighters of our time. An Iconic symbol of Naval Aviation at its prime when “Maverick ” and “Goose” made their debut in the 1980s movie “Top Gun”  and the mostly forgotten  ” The Final Countdown” where brand new F-14A from VF-84 ” Jolly Rogers”  was splashing A6M2 Zeros in this movie starring Kurt Douglas and Martin Sheen on board CVN-68 USS Nimitz.

Tomcat is also iconized by the Fat Cat Mascot with the 2 tails. The Cat was drawn up after a tabby cat that was used for photographs, and named “Tom”. The logo has gone through many variations and in many cases some squadron have their variations of the Tomcat logo as shown below>

For this 47th Birthday Dedication on for the Tomcat,  I would like to post some of the Tomcat moments in Photography of vivid pictures showing the hay day of this magnificent machine. Tomcat may have been retired back in 2006, but her legend will continue. Tomcat Forever!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

VF-101 Grim Reapers ( US Navy F-14 Fleet Replacements Squadron )

VF-213 Black Lions

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomcat Farewell 2006

F-14 Walkaround view of the Mighty F-14 Tomcat

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Article by Dave Chng

Photograph by Dave Chng