Its Tomcat Tuesday and today we take a look at a Tomcat named Delores. F-14A 158612 was the first production cat to roll off the Grumman assembly line. She was born on 12 May 1972 and retired to AMARG on 1 February 2002. During her career 158612 accumulated 4009 flight hours, 489 catapulted launches and 500 arrested landings including field arrestments. She acquired the Delores moniker during her final deployment, aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65). Between 25 April 2001 to 9 November 2001, the Big E was deployed to the Med, Persian Gulf and Northern Arabian Sea. She was heading for home on 11 September 2001 when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As a result, the Big E was ordered to the Gulf of Oman. The assigned Air Wing, CVW-8, were assigned nighttime sorties and flew several TARPS reconnaissance missions near the Pakistan/Afghan border. They started to put 200,000 lbs of warheads on foreheads on 8 October 2001. Targets consisted of several cave complexes and the Shindand Airbase, western Afghanistan. This quote is from VF-41s Official Command History, In the 16 total days of involvement, the Black Aces did not miss a single sortie and achieved a 100% mission completion rate; both astounding feats. In the 149 sorties VF-41 flew in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, they logged over 650 combat hours and delivered over 200,000 lbs of laser guided ordnance, more than any other squadron in Air Wing 8. On 9 November 2001, I was privileged to be granted access to Oceanas runways and ramp in order to photograph the return of VF-14 and VF-41 from their final, historic Tomcat cruise. Both these images were taken on that date. Unfortunately, 158612 was sold for scrap to HVF West, Tucson, AZ and no longer exists.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 18:34:06 +0000
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