Almansur: Tomcat's Twilight

TOMCAT'S TWILIGHT

The last scheduled cruise with the Tomcat took place aboard the USS JOHN F KENNEDY. They sailed from Norfolk on the 7th of June, 2004.

Brian Marbrey kindly sent me these three photos that document the first use of the Kennedy titles on the tails of the Jolly Rogers' Tomcats:

2003 was the year in which the Jolly Rogers commemorate their 60th official birthday. Sixty full years since Tom Blackburn had the Bones painted on a Corsair's cowling. You'll know by now that it does not equate to 60 years with the Bones on the birds, but it is a nice, round number, nonetheless.

Tomcat 103 went to the Cherry Point show proudly dressed up. Jim Marriott is the author of the three following event pictures:

The name of the fabled Ensign Jack Ernie is back to the canopy rail, after been displaced on the colorful birds by the CAG and CO names recently.

Also note the Kennedy titles on the wing glove area. During the George Washington cruises, the carrier's name was painted on the twin tails, bellow the Bones. As shown on the Brian Marbrey's pictures, the first Kennedy titles were also painted on the tails right over the old George Washington ones.

Steve Hornberger, at the same Cherry Point event, took the following close-up picture of the tail markings. Notice that VF-5B is absent from the squadron list, and, in my personal view, that was a gotcha.

This Tomcat, BuNo 163217, is not the same bird that was flown in modex 103 colors during the George Washington cruise. This is an early indication that there will be no final variation on the Bones themselves for the Kennedy cruise.

As a postscript, Brian Marbrey sent me these images in early 2004, and you can see that the 60 years commemorative tail was later corrected to properly show VF-5B in the lineage. Middle picture is by Craig Scaling, via Brian Marbrey.

Note the word "Mutha" at the top of the tails. The Mutha Award is given to the most "spirited" fighter squadron, and the Jolly Rogers have been frequent recipients of the honor.

Victory 113 was photographed by Craig Scaling. Victory is the generic callsign used by the Jolly Rogers.

At the same occasion, Brian took the following picture of a toned down bird:

The following in-flight pictures were taken by none other than the CAG of CVW-17, CAPT Dana "Smudge" Potts, and show to great effect the stunning 60 years commemorative scheme.

Smudge is a world class photographer, whose work I first admired on the pages of the Japanese magazine Koku-Fan quite a few years back.

Dave Brown has captured some low-viz examples during the work-ups, at NAS Oceana. Note the dark gray tails on both - the black tails are only used on the full color examples. Also the skull & crossbones are represented in gray, instead of in white as on the black tails.

The CAG bird, modex 100, was captured during carrier qualifications aboard the Kennedy in late February 2004 in these USN photos:

The low-viz Tomcat with the modex 105 was photographed aboard the Kennedy in March 2004:

Scott Rathbone took the following pictures at Oceana in early June 2005, just before the squadron boarded the Kennedy for their scheduled cruise:

And as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end... the last cruise of the Jolly Rogers with the mighty Tomcat was on the way. On July 9, during participation in Summer Pulse 2004 (the simultaneous deployment of seven carrier strike groups in a demonstration of the ability of the Navy to provide credible combat presence in five theaters), the full color Tomcat prepares for a cat shot:

Modex 103 had some new tailart. The lettering said "Jolly Rogers, Final Tomcat Cruise". Pretty looking bird, painful message!

Victory 100, the CAG bird, had some new nose art, that said "30 years of Jolly Rogers Tomcats, 1975 2005, Last of the Big Fighters":

There's a bit of over appreciation for round numbers in here, since the Jolly Rogers association with the Tomcat started in 1976, and not in 1975.

This nose art was being applied to other squadron aircraft. You can see it on modex 102 on this picture taken by Malcolm Bezzina in Malta on June 27:

LT JG Charles Sikorski of VF-103 took the following detail pictures of the last cruise art. Brian Marbrey is to be thanked for forwarding them to me.

103 was caught again on 14 August flying over Iraq, by the lens of Sgt. Lee O. Tucker of the USAF:

The Tomcat was just cruising along, lightly loaded, with just the targeting pod.

December 12 was the homecoming day for the 10 Tomcats of the Jolly Rogers, flying off the Kennedy and arriving at their home base at NAS Oceana. My good friend Dave Brown was there shooting away:

And lastly, this beautiful photo that hurts more than I care to admit... the mighty Tomcat side by side with its replacement:

Notice the small skull and bones patch on the port side of the nose. This represents yet another award, the CVW-17 "Golden Wrench", honoring the dedication of the maintenance team. The following collage was made from a huge and beautiful Tomcat walkaround sent to me by LT Michael J Zwierko, USNR:

Dan Teker sent me this fantastic high resolution photo of 103 in all its glory:

He also captured the far less colorful line bird, modex 112, showing painted over Mutha titles:

The final flight of the Jolly Rogers with the Tomcat took place on 25 January 2005, when the last two airworthy aircarft (163217 / 103 and 161435 / 110) took off from Oceana headed for the AMARC, where they will be stored in reserve. Jeffrey Stone was there to record this historic, yet very sad, moment:

And the painful words must now be written: the Tomcat is gone. "Thanks for the Ride, Baby". You'll be sorely missed.