Almansur: The Infamous Tomcats of VF-84

THE INFAMOUS TOMCATS OF VF-84

The Jolly Rogers began their transition to the Grumman F-14A Tomcat in June 1976, becoming operational on the new type in 1977.

Together with sister squadron VF-41, they were moved to Carrier Air Wing 8 (CVW-8), deploying aboard the USS Nimitz. They started on their first Tomcat cruise on 1 December 1977, and were at sea until 20 July of 1978.

The twin tails of the mighty Tomcat were ideal for a dramatic display of the Jolly Rogers' colors. Changes from the scheme last used on the Phantoms were those mandated by the different fuselage design, although the skull and crossbones motif took on a more modern look.

This early F-14A photo, taken in late 1976 shows an interesting feature that was very short-lived: the fuselage bar with chevrons was replicated at the top of the tailfins, with the aircraft's modex number at the center:

The following photograph was taken by my friend David F Brown at NAS Oceana in 1978, and the yellow bar at the top of the tailfin has changed to the definitive style.

The Tomcat is presented in its Navy legacy scheme of gull gray over white, with white flaps and elevons.

This first Med cruise aboard the Nimitz is further documented by this at sea images taken by Angelo Romano. The Jolly Rogers adapted well to the Tomcat, and the media started to take notice of the sleek new fighters with their colorful livery.

And then Hollywood got into the picture. Six years before Tom Cruise took Kelly McGillis' breath away on the movie Topgun, the Navy, the Nimitz and the Jolly Rogers got prime exposure on a film that became a classic.

The Final Countdown, released in 1980 to appreciative audiences, was a science fiction movie with an interesting storyline. The USS Nimitz is caught in a "time storm" while on maneuvers off Hawaii, and is transported back in time to 6 December 1941, the very eve of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. They then faced the dilemma of intervening and changing the past, or letting it go and fail to keep their sworn oath to defend the United States.
The flying scenes are very nice, and the portrayal of Navy life is far better than that of Topgun. Jolly Rogers' Tomcats are all over the place, and their markings and dynamics would have been hard to beat even if they had been developed by the Hollywood people themselves. Who can forget the scenes were two VF-84 F-14As splash two Japanese Imperial Navy A6M2b Zeros, one with a Sidewinder and the other being torn apart by 20mm vulcan cannon fire?

Tom Blackburn's Jolly Rogers insignia was now the best known worldwide, much to the sorrow of the "World Famous Golden Dragons", of The Bridges at Toko-Ri fame. The Navy got its first post-Vietnam publicity boost, and to be an F-14 pilot with VF-84 was the king of cool amongst naval aviators.

The Jolly Rogers were aboard the Nimitz for six more cruises and one major exercise. During this time their Tomcats received two variations to their color schemes. The Navy was leaving behind the traditional gray over white paint scheme on tactical aircraft, evolving to all-gray schemes. This toned down VF-84's Tomcats, but not by much.

The second Tomcat cruise introduced the gray overall scheme, but was otherwise unchanged, as proven by this photo taken by McCurdy in August 1979.

The third USS Nimitz Jolly Rogers variation was introduced on the 1980 cruise, and is depicted on the following photographs taken by my friends Ian Powell (modex number 201, 1980) and Tom McManus (modex 200, May 1981), both at NAS Oceana.

The Jolly Rogers were present on two major events during their cruises aboard the Nimitz, which can be described as combat situations.

The first happened on the cruise of 10 September 1979 to 26 May 1980, that took them to the Med, Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. At 15:05 Zulu time on April 24, off the coast of Iran, 8 Marine Corps RH-53D helos lifted off from the Nimitz deck at the start of the ill-fated mission to rescue the American Embassy personnel being kept as hostages in Tehran. This mission would end in disaster some 7 hours later, when one of the RH-53s impacted one MC-130 Hercules at the designated desert refueling point.

VF-84 Tomcats were loaded for bear should the need arise to provide air superiority in support of the special forces operation. In the end, the Iranians didn't come out to play. Many details about the air operations of this cruise are still classified, but stories abound of vigorous ACM encounters while harassing and being harassed by the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force. Mick Freer took this picture during a port visit to England during an exercise in September 1980:

The second event came to pass during the cruise of 1981. Gadhafi was making loud noises about tracing a "Line of Death", claiming all the Gulf of Sidra as Libya's territorial waters. Reagan was in the mood to play, and sent the Nimitz there. The Libyan Air Force regularly launched MiG-23, MiG-25, Mirage F1 and SU-22 aircraft to harass the US Navy, and a lot of very serious maneuvering took place against the Tomcats of the sister squadrons of VF-41 and VF-84. The Libyans were always trying to get into a position to take a shot, but the US ROE (rules of engagement) prevented the F-14s from firing unless they were fired upon. It all meant that the US aviators were limited to work hard to get the Libyans off their tails.

The Libyan pilots finally started a fight on August 19, when two VF-41 Tomcats were fired upon by two SU-22s. Both were promptly shot down. At the same time, a pair of MiG-25s was maneuvering with two other VF-41 aircraft, and some MiG-23 were inbound. Four Tomcats of the Jolly Rogers were sent to the fight, but by the time they arrived on station the Libyans had disengaged.

1981 was also the year in which VF-84 had the honor of introducing the TARPS recce pod to the fleet, expanding the Tomcat's mission to include the reconnaissance role, left vacant by the retirement of both the RF-8G Crusader and the RA-5C Vigilante.

The media continued its love affair with the Jolly Rogers throughout the 1980's. The often heard recording of the 1989 fight in which two Tomcats of VF-32 downed two Libyan MiG-23s has been illustrated in various TV documentaries with images of VF-84 aircraft. Also a later movie based on the Achille Lauro incident shows the Egyptian 737 airliner flying the terrorists responsible for the hijacking being intercepted by Tomcats from the Jolly Rogers. The real interception was made in 1987 by F-14s from VF-74 and VF-103, flying from the USS Saratoga. Fate was already painting over the Sluggers insignia.

Drastic changes to the color scheme took place around 1984. First of all, this was the time to tone down the fleet's tactical aircraft, introducing what became known as the TPS (Tactical Paint Scheme). Tomcats got a three-tone gray tactical scheme, where all the lettering and squadron markings were to be applied using varying shades of gray. The flamboyant US Navy colors seemed to be on the way out. These uninspiring colors are shown to good effect on the following Tom McManus photo.

Note that this is a modex 200, traditionally the CAG or the squadron's commander aircraft. Low contrast and low visibility was the norm of the day. Note also that the tail code was now carried on the inside of the fins, leaving the skull & crossbones even more dominant on the outside.

Joan Martorell took the following photo of the same paint scheme aboard the Nimitz in May 1984, anchored at Palma de Mallorca.

On July 26 1987 the Jolly Rogers flew off the Nimitz for the last time. The Nimitz was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet, and took aboard CVW-9. CVW-8 was assigned to the brand new USS Theodore Roosevelt, and kept their Atlantic duties.

Fortunately the brass relented somewhat regarding the draconian rules of the TPS, and decided that it was in the good interest of morale to allow a maximum of two aircraft per squadron to display full colors. VF-84 took the opportunity to develop a more colorful variation for their aircraft modex 200 and 201. David F Brown took this very nice picture of 200.

This involved tan radomes and full-sized national insignia, but the tails were still basically gray. Soon, however, the black tails returned to the Tomcats, as seen on the following photograph by my friend Graham Haynes.

This scheme has been captured in all its glory by Rob Tabor on the spectacular air to air photograph that follows.

The other squadron aircraft were painted on a far more subdued color scheme. The next three pictures were taken by Javier Bobadilla on February 1989, at the Spanish Air Force Base at Albacete.

The first photo show the low-viz, three-to-gray, camouflage worn by most of the squadron's aircraft. The next two pictures show the CAG bird, in full colors, doing touch-and-goes at Albacete.

VF-84 took their Tomcats to battle in 1991, during operation Desert Storm, that concluded what became known as the Gulf War. They flew combat air patrol, escort and recce missions (with the TARPS pod) out of the Roosevelt, which was sailing on the Persian Gulf. The Theodore Roosevelt left her homeport on 28 December 1990, arriving just in time for the start of the hostilities on 17 January 1991.

On their return to NAS Oceana on 26 June 1991, David F Brown, also known as Mr. Tomcat and the only living being on earth I'll admit to loving Tomcats more than I do, photographed both high-visibility birds, modex 200 (CAG) and 201 (CO). They were about as dissimilar in color scheme as they could be, and still claim to belong to the same squadron at the same time.

The CAG aircraft shows a variation where all the yellow trim and lettering has been replaced with white, in a scheme that is very close to that adopted by VF-103 after they took on the Jolly Rogers traditions.

The CO's aircraft shows a unique tail art, in which the Bones have been framed in a waving flag motive, that is reminiscent of the one that adorned VF-84's F-4Bs in the Vietnam War.

The following cruise was to be VF-84's last, and took place in 1993. The Theodore Roosevelt sailed without VF-41 and, for the first time, with 3 F/A-18C squadrons. However, the Black Aces returned to the "Big Stick" for the cruise of 1995, whereas VF-84 did not, and was disestablished on October 1st 1995, to the dismay of enthusiasts worldwide. VF-84 was involved in upgrading the Tomcats role to include the strike mission, and late pictures of their Tomcats commonly show bomb racks under their Phoenix pallets.

Hollywood was not yet finished with VF-84. Two of the last squadron aircraft got extensively filmed for the movie Executive Decision.

This goofy motion picture tells the story of a Boeing 747 being taken over by terrorists who plan to crash it over the United States, as a delivery platform for some very nasty biological weapon. The film features a multi place F-117 that is far bigger on the inside than on the outside, and is fitted with a contraption that allows it to shuttle commandos to the 747 in midair. Steven Seagal is the senior man of the commando force, but gets a fall early on. The Tomcats are sent from a nominal Saratoga to intercept. Lovely Tomcats, bad movie.

More than a few tears were shed at NAS Oceana when the CO, CDR Dan Cloyd, read the orders that officially disestablished VF-84 Jolly Rogers, at a ceremony that took place on September 29th. However, amongst the mourners there were some pirates faithful to their traditions, who were sharpening their swords and cutlasses whilst giving the Sluggers of VF-103 long, predatorial glances.

History, you know, has a tendency to repeat itself.