The first, emotional segment of the video shows VF-14 Tophatters Tomcats over New York.
The cool video in this post features collection of various laser-guided bomb strikes conducted in Afghanistan, in October 2001, by U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats belonging to VF-14 Tophatters.
The first, emotional segment of the video shows VF-14 Tomcats over New York.
In April 2001, VF-14 embarked on their final F-14 cruise onboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), supporting Operation Southern Watch (OSW) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). As the carrier headed for home and on its way to South Africa they were given an order to head to the North Persian Gulf after the Sep. 11, 2001 Attacks.
The USS Enterprise/CVW-8 had been elected to be the night carrier during OEF and thus didn’t see action until Oct. 8, VF-14 attacked a radar warning installation near Kabul during CVW-8’s initial strike, which had been envisioned to have a section of F/A-18s, a section of F-14s from VF-14 and an EA-6B from VAQ-141, but due to insufficient fuel available for the Hornets, only the F-14s and the EA-6B pressed on.
After its last F-14 cruise VF-14 was redesignated Strike Fighter Squadron 14 (VFA-14), relocated to NAS Lemoore, and began the transition to the F/A-18 Super Hornet switching to CVW-11 and USS Nimitz (CVN-68).
After their return to the US in November, VF-14 had dropped 173,324 lbs of ordnance (174 laser-guided bombs), VF-14 also buddy-lased 28 AGM-65 and 23 laser-guided bombs.
