VF-14 Tophatters - The TOPHATTER

Truly a banner year for the Tophatters!

Last month the Tophatters of VF-14 made it on the cover of theNAS OceanaJet Observer with a knock-out title : Tophatters on Top ! Here's a shot of that cover and you can read below the cover story, as published by the magazine and posted online by theNAS Oceana Jet ObserverOnline.

Year of the Lid

by Lt. Mark Mineo
VF-14 PAO

as published by the NAS Oceana Jet Observer Online.

It has been, by any standard, a banner year for the Tophatters of VF-14. When Commander Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet Vice Adm. John Mazach visited Fighting Fourteen at the end of May to present the Battle Efficiency award, he underscored a series of honors, both large and small, that have marked a truly extraordinary year in the life of the Navy's oldest active-duty fighter squadron. The Tophatters officially won the Battle "E" at the end of February. They were presented the most coveted trophy of excellence in the fighter community - the Admiral Joseph C. Clifton award - at the Association of Naval Aviation (ANA) convention in May.

And this award was soon followed by an equally prestigious and exceptional honor - the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy, awarded annually to the most improved combat unit (ship, submarine, or squadron) in Commander in Chief, U. S. Atlantic Fleet (CINCLANTFLT). This award has never been won by an F-14 squadron, and it is perhaps this last award which says the most about where Fighting Fourteen has been and where it is going as the squadron sails into the next millennium.

AT3 Larry Craft performs missile system operational checks.

As recently as 1995, Fighting Fourteen was slated to end its long tradition of service and disestablish. The squadron had not deployed since early 1993, and most of its jets were going into preservation. It is the sense of mission which breathes life into any naval unit, and that mission was sorely lacking at VF-14. "It was a pretty tough place to do business," relates Lt. Richard Simpson, who departed the squadron last October. "We only had nine jets, and six were in preservation. If we wanted to bring one jet out of preservation, we had to put another back. We didn't have much money, spare parts, or support equipment. And we were losing a lot of people because of the anticipated decommissioning."

Fortunately for morale, things started to change when Cmdr. Emmitt Dickens took command in early '95 and announced that Fighter Squadron Fourteen would not be decommissioning. Under his leadership, the squadron started to volunteer for any detachments possible. The challenges involved in this about-face were numerous. Aircrew, who had not had the opportunity to garner as many hours as their community counterparts, had to work on proficiency. Some hadn't operated around a carrier in years. And with the money to bring its jets out of preservation and ramp up to a full squadron complement, VF-14's manning problem was initially exacerbated. "We were stretched pretty thin," notes Master Chief Ted Prince, "we had fifteen jets, and we were only manned for ten. But we kept pushing it ... at one point we conducted a missile shoot in which we launched ten missiles and dropped several thousand pounds of live ordnance in one day."

The Tophatters were determined to stage a comeback, and it wasn't long before their motivation and professionalism earned recognition. Fighting Fourteen sent a detachment to the Marine Corp's Twenty Nine Palm Expeditionary Airfield (EAF) in support of the Corp's Combined Arms Exercise in the Fall of '95 (CAX 9-95), taking the place of a previously scheduled Harrier squadron. "They invited us back," recalls Lt. John McFadden. "It was hot - extremely hot. We were living in tents, and operating off a runway made of aluminum matting. But we did well...the Marines really liked our extended on station time, and we dropped an unbelievable amount of ordnance." Indeed...over a three-week period, the Tophatters dropped over 156,000 pounds and flew 200 sorties. It was a truly crushing amount of close air support.

Two VF-14 Grumman F-14A Tomcats perform low altitude
maneuvres over the Med during the 1997 cruise.

But it wasn't the same as operating off the boat - an area in which the Tophatters were still rated as underdogs. "When the squadron joined Carrier Wing Eight in early '96," recalls Lt. j.g. Todd McKellar, VF-14's maintenance material control officer, "a lot of people thought it was destined for failure." Fortunately, Fighting Fourteen dispelled this notion in February of '96 when it successfully completed the first sea trials in almost three years aboard USS John C. Stennis. "That at sea period really established us," explains Commanding Officer Cmdr. Luke Parent. "It was our first opportunity to deploy as members of an airwing, and our people were hungry. They wanted to prove that they weren't the Air National Guard, but a sea-going, war-fighting squadron. They did well."

And they continued to do well under the leadership of Cmdrs. John Snedeker and Luke Parent, from the brief North Atlantic deployment which took them on an inspiring port visit to Dublin, Ireland, to the cruise work-up cycle which then-Skipper Snedeker liked to characterize as "the long road to the Mediterranean." The Spring '97 deployment which followed was no disappointment. As Parent took command of VF-14 in July of '97, the squadron was well on its way to establishing its CVW-8 leading 98.7 percent sortie completion rate, and under the new skipper, it only continued to excel. The squadron developed and implemented new tactics utilizing LANTIRN, the Tomcat's new precision targeting system, logging an unprecedented amount of LANTIRN hours throughout the deployment - over 1300 hours in 800 sorties. Peace keeping missions over Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq resulted in 100% target acquisition on all assigned targets. The squadron led air wing detachments with allies and friends in Landivisiau, France, and Oman, Jordan. VF-14 planned and ex-ecuted operation "Beacon Flash," the most intensive joint exercise with the nation of Oman in a decade. And this effort was supported by a Maintenance Department that won three consecutive Carrier Air Wing Eight Golden Wrench Awards during deployment, and went on to win the 1997 Commander Fighter Wing Atlantic Golden Wrench Award. Clearly, if the Tophatters had once been the untested members of Air Wing Eight, by the end of cruise they had proven that they could be relied on for leadership and excellence in all aspects of strike/fighter aviation.

three VF-14 Grumman F-14A Tomcats over the NAS El Centro range
during SFARP deployment in 1998

And what is the key to such an amazing turn around? "There's no doubt about it," explains Parent, "we were blessed with an amazing amount of talent. Every member of this command has been instrumental to its success. The backbone of the squadron is certainly the Maintenance Department, and our maintainers have been awesome - they just don't quit when it comes to providing, day after day, consistently excellent aircraft. And our other departments show the same dedication. There's a real spirit of quiet, confident professionalism...people taking pride in what they do."

They have a lot to be proud of.

related links :
the NAS Oceana Jet Observer online

[ top of page ]