Aaaaannnnndddd there it is again: that feeling that I was born 10 to 20 years too late.
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The Tomcat Legacy; 35+ years from Fleet Air Defender to Recce to Precision Strike
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That's a new and interesting image for me. (or maybe I was asleep :sleep_125
) Of course, here are the two more common Iranian F-14 patches...
That's a new and interesting image for me. (or maybe I was asleep :sleep_125
It's the one Grumman was giving out. I got one in late 70s from US Navy Iranian Det OinC who was back in Pentagon after the "Fall".
If you haven't seen this book, it's a real gem of inside info of the "other" guys flying the combat and getting the lion's share of aerial encounters during time period where US Navy had two engagements with Libyan and 4 victories while Iran was continually engaged over a decade or so and claims over 150 victories. No wonder the Iraqs were loath to get anywhere near the Navy Tomcats in Desert Storm and thereafter (OSW).
No joke.
I have a copy of Cooper and Farzad's amazing and well-researched book.If you haven't seen this book, it's a real gem of inside info of the "other" guys flying the combat and getting the lion's share of aerial encounters during time period where US Navy had two engagements with Libyan and 4 victories while Iran was continually engaged over a decade or so and claims over 150 victories. No wonder the Iraqs were loath to get anywhere near the Navy Tomcats in Desert Storm and thereafter (OSW).
It was given to me by an Iranian friend as part of a multiple, "thank-you" gift for once ferrying an F-14 to Iran. We used to fly together at a US airline, and he had quite a history. When he was much younger, he was an Iranian army ground-pounder beyond the front in their "Sacred Defense War" against Iraq. Among of his hair-raising stories where his witnessing of air battles overhead his ground position, of F-14s downing Iraqi MiGs.
Fascinating stuff – in the book, and his stories.
Tom Cooper made it over to the Tomcat Sunset in 2006 from his homebase in Austria and we chatted about his sources. He's really connected to folks in Iran and Iraq who accept his neutral Austrian connection. One of my favorite stories is the radio call by Iraqis when a Tomcat was detected. It translates as "Run, run!" More interesting is the realization by the Revolutionary Guards that you weren't going to be effective if you tried to put your loyal dudes int he cockpit with no training. They had jailed all the maverick Tomcat pilots with skills thinking they may defect or cause trouble. So they carefully let the wild bunch out of jail and put loyal Revolutionary Guards in the backseats to watch over them. According to Tom, several of them became Aces and one claimed 9 Iraqis downed. They were so confident of their aircraft and skills that they routinely sortied as a single into formations of Iraqis. One Iraqi division of MiG-23s found out a close parade type formation was condusive to returing to base as a single Phoenix shredded the lead Flogger and caused the loss of the nearby wingman as well (Flogger was susceptible to catastrophic failures if warhed frags penetrated the intakes and nearby fuel cells).
Not too surprising since - as you well know - those Iranian F-14 crews were trained by some our best Navy F-14 aircrews, the guys at TAFT det Isfahan, Iran....
To set record straight, there were active Duty folks there running the Det (is CDR "Hot Dog" Brown who was a F-8 driver fresh from weapons test at Pt Mugu) supported by the Grummies.
Couple of photos of the Udvar Hazy Tomcat with my new Nikon. It was amateur hour with my Xmas present.
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It's a good piece of kit. I wish I could take credit, but those were taken using the autofocus. I'm definitely interested in what the camera can do, though. It's got some neato gee whiz tools that make it easy to do things I could never have thought of with a point and shoot.
Those are some beautiful photos. I have always liked the lines of the Tomcat, she is one badass looking lady. Thank you for sharing them.
What did you get?
A D3000. I like it, I played with my bro-in laws Canon Rebel, and between the two ended up liking the Nikon a little better. It also helps that money talks, and Amazon was giving the D3000 away for 450, about 150 less than I saw the canon anywhere else.
It's got a guide feature on it that makes it SheDevil proof. It literally gives you pictogram directions on what different settings are for. She wants to get into photography while I'm away, so I ended up with a pretty easy Xmas present that I can enjoy too. The only thing I wish it came with was the editing software canon gives away with their cameras. Photostitch could have come in handy with some of the pictures I got at the museum. I'll start looking for lenses this summer, probably.
It's got a guide feature on it that makes it SheDevil proof. It literally gives you pictogram directions on what different settings are for. She wants to get into photography while I'm away, so I ended up with a pretty easy Xmas present that I can enjoy too. The only thing I wish it came with was the editing software canon gives away with their cameras. Photostitch could have come in handy with some of the pictures I got at the museum. I'll start looking for lenses this summer, probably.
Cool clip Heyjoe. I especially like the part at 1:40 where the shot was taken out of the back of a COD.