Monday, September 25, 2006
Farewell to the F-14
Last week the Navy retired the last American F-14 Tomcats. Most people know of the Tomcat from the movie "Top Gun" -- Tom Cruise, navy pilot, yadda, yadda, yadda. Now if you know about my family background, you know that I from from a solid Air Force family. My father retired with 28 years, my brother and sister are both active duty, and my stepfather was in the USAF before my mother met him.
So why would I be writing about a Navy plane? Because I grew up in Stuart, Florida.
When I was a kid, Grumman Aerospace had a facility in Stuart where, I believe, some work was done on the F-14s. Not too far away, between Stuart and West Palm Beach, Pratt & Whitney had a huge plant, and I think the engines on the early F-14s were made there. (Later versions of the F-14 used engines made by General Electric.) And those two companies employed a lot of people whose kids were my schoolmates. In short, the F-14 supported a lot of the families in my hometown.
Many of my schoolmates had stickers on their notebooks depicting the F-14 Tomcat mascot -- a pudgy Tomcat wearing an armed holster, leaning over a table, proclaiming, "Anytime, baby."
A bit of research turned up an interesting tidbit: While the U.S. Navy has retired the F-14, there are Tomcats still in service, as the Iranian Air Force still uses it. However, they probably have difficulty obtaining spare parts, which went out of production even for the U.S. Navy some time ago.
So why would I be writing about a Navy plane? Because I grew up in Stuart, Florida.
When I was a kid, Grumman Aerospace had a facility in Stuart where, I believe, some work was done on the F-14s. Not too far away, between Stuart and West Palm Beach, Pratt & Whitney had a huge plant, and I think the engines on the early F-14s were made there. (Later versions of the F-14 used engines made by General Electric.) And those two companies employed a lot of people whose kids were my schoolmates. In short, the F-14 supported a lot of the families in my hometown.
Many of my schoolmates had stickers on their notebooks depicting the F-14 Tomcat mascot -- a pudgy Tomcat wearing an armed holster, leaning over a table, proclaiming, "Anytime, baby."
A bit of research turned up an interesting tidbit: While the U.S. Navy has retired the F-14, there are Tomcats still in service, as the Iranian Air Force still uses it. However, they probably have difficulty obtaining spare parts, which went out of production even for the U.S. Navy some time ago.
