Replies

It’s too bad the F-14’s fell into the hands, so to speak, of the Ayatollah.

True enough. Here is a scary story I can probably tell now, back during the final years of the Shah, I was working at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEASYSCOM), and as most folks know, the Iranian Navy had a very good working relationship with our own Navy, and some Iranian admiral close to the Shah had begun discussions regarding the Ethan Allen class boomer subs which had already been flagged as fated for conversion from SSBN to SSN (attack) sub status, in order to stay within the limitations of the SALT II treaty, with the Ohio-class Trident subs about to begin construction.

The discussions? The Iranians wanted to BUY the USS Ethan Allen (along with sister ships USS Sam Houston and USS Thomas Edison), complete with Polaris missiles. Needless to say, that idea was axed but there was discussion of selling the subs to Iran after filling the missile tubes with concrete prior to converting them to SSN 'slow attack' subs.

But the idea that the Ayatollah's thugs could have gotten their hands on a working nuke sub?

Gave me the shivers. And of course everyone now conveniently forgets how the Buffoon from Georgia (now known as the 'Brain Cancer Kid') called the Ayatollah Khomeini a 'godly man' while sticking the knife into the back of the Shah.

I'm glad they didn't get the subs also. Nor did they get the full Tomcat package our guys had. Personally I think we should have stuck with the Tomcat and simply put the money into Avionics upgrades.

They were also great ventilation cleaners. Have a couple come by at flight deck level full speed and every bit of dust in the ships ventilation comes flying out LOL. They shoulda put it up on the PMS Board as a semi annual task :>}

We did a dependents cruise and my brother in law came on the ship for it. We were off VACAPES for the day fixing to head up river to Portsmouth and we had an airshow out at sea. They had two F-14's flyby at full speed about a quarter mile off just above flight deck level. You had to watch fast. The Boom hit and then my shop began getting trouble calls about dust coming out of the A/C vents LOL.

‘After filling the missile tubes with concrete - - ‘

Back then when the Shah was deposed, there was talk of blowing up the F-14’s to keep the planes from the new regime. But it never happened, of course.
However, where was the new regime going to obtain new parts for the F-14 - ???!