Some 40 years ago this month, July 1984: Massive U.S. Navy Grumman F-14A Tomcat fighters of Fighter Squadron VF-114 “Aardvarks” and VF-213 “Black Lions” nestled snugly aboard the one-of-a-kind supercarrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) as part of Carrier Air Wing 11 (CVW-11), during Big E’s May-to-December 1984 Westpac cruise.
Photo: JOCS Kirby Harrison, 330-CFD-DN-ST-86-02064, via NARA
For the record, the ‘Varks decommissioned on 30 April 1993 while the Lions (re-designated VFA-213) downgraded to AESA-equipped F/A-18F Super Hornets in April 2006 upon the retirement of the Tomcat. Meanwhile, Enterprise, inactivated in 2012, will probably haunt shipyards for another decade as her recycling drags on.
However, fantastically artistic footage of F-14s from VF-213 and VF-114 taking off from Enterprise in 1984 was used in the opening scene of 1986’s Top Gun, with Iceman and Slider later portrayed as Lions, albeit with the wrong squadron number.
In that sense, the ghost of CVN-65’s ’84 Westpac cruise will live forever.