Free Republic

This might be the single best MLKJ Day post I've ever seen in my life. Wait for it... FBI @FBI · Follow This #MLKDay, the #FBI honors one of the most prominent leaders of the Civil Rights movement and reaffirms its commitment to Dr. King’s legacy of fairness and equal justice for all. Readers added context The FBI engaged in surveillance of King, attempted to discredit him, and used manipulation tactics to influence him to stop organizing. King’s family believe the FBI was responsible for his death. cbsnews.com/news/mlks-fami… npr.org/2021/01/18/956… npr.org/2021/01/18/956… Context is written by people who use X, and appears...

Tomcat may have been the F-14's official moniker, but its other nickname was 'Turkey.' Seeing as many of us will be slaving away in an attempt to cook perfect turkey today, it is only proper that we pay homage to the hard working sailors who had to the cook a perfect Turkey every time- those who maintained the crazily complex F-14 'Turkey.'The nickname 'Turkey,' or 'Turkeybird,' came from how the normally super-sleek, muscular and famous fighter looked on the catapult going through control checks or on approach to landing, when the aircraft's entire trailing edge seemed to fan out...

More than 40 years after Iran acquired the F-14 Tomcat from the United States, there are still plenty of misconceptions about the deal. Most published accounts offer a simple explanation — that Iran needed F-14s to counter over-flights by Soviet-operated MiG-25R Foxbat reconnaissance aircraft. The truth is a bit more complicated. The Soviet overflights were actually a response to Iran’s own increasing belligerence, which dovetailed with the country’s determined acquisition of better and better U.S.-made warplanes. Bear in mind that after the CIA staged a coup against the Iranian government in 1953, Tehran was a close U.S. ally. In the...

It’s generally accepted that it was two U.S. Navy F-14 crews who scored the first aerial victories in the powerful, twin-engine fighter — when on Aug. 19, 1981, a pair of Tomcats from squadron VF-41 shot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22s that had opened fire at them over the Gulf of Sidra. That’s the conception. As is often the case in the history of aerial warfare, the truth is significantly different. An Iranian F-14 crew actually scored the Tomcat’s first kill.

On April 9, 1972, Iraq and the Soviet Union signed an historic agreement. The USSR committed to arming the Arab republic with the latest weaponry. In return for sending Baghdad guns, tanks and jet fighters, Moscow got just one thing — influence … in a region that held most of the world’s accessible oil. In neighboring Iran, news of Iraq’s alliance with the Soviets exploded like a bomb. Ethnically Persian and predominately Shia, Iran was — and still is — a bitter rival of Iraq’s Sunni Arab establishment, which during the 1970s dominated the country’s politics. In Tehran, King Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi — the “shah” — moved quickly to...

We’re blasting along through the bumpy mid-day air at a brisk 480 knots, 500 feet above the desert. The ride is rough, and the purposeful rumble of our engines reminds me that it takes a lot of power to push this machine through the dense air at 800 feet per second. Fortunately, we have a lot of power. To my left at about a half mile is another Tomcat, and a mile ahead are two more. We fly in an offset box formation, each of us carrying two Mk 84 2,000-pound bombs. I’m the radar intercept officer (RIO) in an...

Did You Know that American advanced F-14 Tom Cat Fighter Jets, helped to keep Ayatollah Khomeini in Power during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s? When Iran was under the pro-American Shah of Iran, America sold 79 F-14 Tom Cats to Iran in 1974-1978. The world's most experienced combat pilots in the F-14 are Iranians. According to Wikipedia: "...In 1980, an Iranian F-14 shot down an Iraqi Mil Mi-25 helicopter for its first air-to-air kill during the Iran–Iraq War. According to research by Tom Cooper, within the first six months of the war Iranian F-14s scored over 50 air-to-air victories,...

Several years since it was eventually retired from the U.S. Navy, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat remains one of the most loved planes by aviation enthusiasts. Any article about this iconic fighter plane, still operating with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, its story, capabilities, records and surrounding anecdotes, always become a much debated and commented post on The Aviationist. For this reason, we will continue writing about this legendary plane and its replacement: the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. After the Tomcat retirement, the Rhino (as the F/A-18E/F is nicknamed by its aircrews) has not only quickly become the backbone of...

We sat at the end of the runway, our F-14's GE-110 motors humming, awaiting our clearance to begin what would be the last F-14 Demonstration ever. The Air Boss's voice crackled over the radio: "Tomcat Demo, you're cleared to five miles and 15k feet. The air show box is yours" At that very moment, I distinctly remember what my Commanding Officer told us before the show: "Fellas, make it a memorable one… just not too memorable!" LCDR Joe "Smokin" Ruzicka was the Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) to fly the last F-14 Demonstration before the Tomcat's final demise in 2006. Commander...

Editors Note: Every airplane that goes into service is accompanied by controversy. This is especially true of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Our two experts argue that the Super Hornet is not necessarily the airplane the Navy needs for the future, and their backgrounds lend weight to their arguments. Rear Admiral Paul Gillcrist U.S. Navy (Ret.) spent 33 years as a fighter jet pilot and wing commander and was operations commander for all Pacific Fleet fighters. Bob Kress is an aeronautical engineer and, during his long career at Grumman, he was directly involved in the development of the F-14 Tomcat. Their ...

Tomcat pilots test the newest Harrier system Story by Lance Cpl. Laura Cardoso Marine Attack Squadron 311 completed testing on the next generation of the AV-8B Harrier operating system May 12, 2011. Harrier 6.0, a software, hardware and weapons upgrade, specifically for the harrier, was designed to improve the efficiency of the aircraft. "We are always striving for improvements," said Maj. William Maples, Naval Air Weapons Station in China Lake, Calif., harrier branch head. "We work towards more capability and better support for the guys on the ground. It's the nature of the business. We are always trying to improve...

Operation Desert Storm, 1 February 1991 -- A U.S. Navy F-14A Tomcat fighter jet (assigned to Fighter Squadron 211 (VF-211) at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia) flies over burning Kuwaiti oil wells. Via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20060914.htm (medium, large)  

My squadron and air wing were detached to NAS Fallon, Nevada, for strike training. Most of us attended lectures all day, but I was tasked with giving the battle-group-air-warfare commander an orientation flight in the F-14D. As skipper of the cruiser in charge of the battle group's air defenses, he had been spending time with the air wing to better understand how we conduct our missions. He had observed a number of the strike events through the tactical-air-combat-training system (TACTS) replays, and he had flown with the E-2C and EA-6B squadrons. He was proud that the Prowler guys hadn't been...

A U.S. Navy F-14A Tomcat, assigned to Fighter Squadron 102 (VF-102), makes a transonic high-speed flyby past the aircraft carrier USS America (CV-66) on 1 March 1991. The photo was taken while the USS America was stationed in the Red Sea. The large white "vapor cone" created by the F-14A Tomcat is technically called a Prandtl-Glauert Condensation Cloud or Prandtl-Glauert Cloud.3000 x 1997 pixels . . . 2002 x 1332 pixels . . . via http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20061112.htm The Photographer Lieutenant Commander Ken Neubauer, United States Navy   Dr. Mark S. Cramer's "Prandtl-Glauert Condensation Clouds" Tutorial http://web.archive.org/web/20070510225616/www.fluidmech.net/tutorials/sonic/prandtl-glauert-clouds.htm

United States Navy Pilot Lieutenant Commander David Burnham and Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) Lieutenant Commander Bruce Defibaugh attached to Fighter Squadron Two (VF-2), bring their [transonic] F-14D "Super Tomcat" through the sound barrier during an air-power demonstration with USS Constellation (CV 64) battlegroup on 10 July 1999. Large or medium photo via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20040818.htm (photo 10). Image ID: 990710-N-6483G-001 PhotographerEnsign John Gay, United States Navy

Iranian F-14s Fly Again January 31, 2008: The U.S. has now forbidden the sale of any F-14 aircraft components. This is to prevent Iran from getting any parts with which to keep its dwindling fleet of F-14s operational. All surplus F-14s, and F-14 components, must be destroyed. The U.S. Navy has been doing that, since last year, to the retired F-14s it has. It is believed that Iran has restored at least three of its three-decade old F-14A jets to operational status. More F-14As are to be restored this year. There is, however, the matter of credibility and capability. For...

WASHINGTON - President Bush signed legislation Monday prohibiting the Pentagon from selling leftover F-14 fighter jet parts, a move prompted by security gaps in the military's surplus auction. Those gaps made the surplus auction a prime place for Iran to shop for the spares it desperately needs for its Tomcat fleet. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., proposed the ban after The Associated Press reported last year that buyers for Iran, China and other countries exploited weaknesses in Pentagon surplus-sale security to obtain sensitive military equipment including parts for F-14s and other aircraft and for missile components....

Iran upgrading its U.S. F-14s, testing GPS-guided smart bombs LONDON — Iran says it has succeeded both in restoring its F-14 fighter-jet fleet to operational service and in developing its own GPS-guided smart bomb. Industry sources said Iranian defense firms have been overhauling and upgrading F-14A fighter-jets. They said the Defense Ministry has overseen a serial production line for F-14 overhaul. The ministry has administered a project by the state-owned Iranian Aircraft Industries Complex to enhance the F-14As, Middle East Newsline reported. The sources said the project began in 2007, and since May three F-14As were upgraded. In 1972, Iran...

A mechanical monster grabs the F-14 fighter jet and chews through one wing and then another, ripping off the Tomcat's appendages before moving on to its guts. Finally, all that's left is a pile of shredded rubble — like the scraps from a Thanksgiving turkey. Within a workday, a $38 million fighter jet that once soared as a showpiece of U.S. air power can be destroyed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, home to the military's "boneyard" for retired aircraft. The Pentagon is paying a contractor at least $900,000 to destroy old F-14s, a jet affectionately nicknamed "the turkey," rather than...

Federal agents seized four F-14 Tomcat fighters in San Bernardino County on Tuesday — three from airplane museums — after investigators determined that the jets were not demilitarized and were improperly sold or transferred to private companies, including the producer of the TV show "JAG," authorities said. When the jets were retired in the mid-1990s at the Naval Air Station at Point Mugu, Navy officials failed to ensure that the aircraft were stripped of military hardware, according to a court affidavit filed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Three of the fighter jets then were sold, in "unauthorized...