This brings tears to my eyes, my last CO in the Marine was Col Gene Berry, he flew the last Marine Huey out of Vietnam off the embassy. He was an awesome man!
They might not have said it to you when you came back but… Welcome Home! My dad was in the Army in Vietnam he came back and My cousin JonJon’s real dad was killed in Vietnam. My dad told me about San Francisco International so Welcome home!
My company gunny from my days in the Marine Corps probably rode on that Huey. He was one of the last Marines to leave the Embassy after the building was cleared. He had a framed copy of the TIME magazine article that detailed the fall of Saigon and his picture was in it.
I worked the Flight Deck for VF-1 as an AME Troubleshooter during the '74-'75 WESTPAC cruise on board the USS Enterprise. For five days in late April the Pilots and Launch Crew (myself included!) manned two 'Alert 5' F-14 Tomcats sitting on the waist catapults waiting for the Captain to give us the GO signal to launch. No take-offs and landings... just waiting as the ship tooled up and down Yankee Station. Pilots and RIOs were strapped in and all pre-flight checks were done. 'Alert 5' meant we had five minutes to get our jets airborne and I'm here to tell you we were READY! Finally on April 29th we got the order to launch and on that day F-14 Tomcats flew Air Cover missions over Vietnam in support of the Evacuation of Saigon. This went on into the next day and then we were done.
The pilot who flew this F-14 in Vietnam was named 'Hooter' Gibson. To quote 'hooter', 'we were very proud of our front line fighter F-4 Phantom as it was best in the world, but then came F-14 Tomcat that made F-4 Phantom look completely obsolete. I mean, it could out-turn the Phantom, it could out-accelerate the Phantom, it could out-climb the Phantom and it could out-weapon system the Phantom. In a sense, it was a bit of a letdown to see something you are so proud of suddenly become so obsolete'. F-14 Tomcat came too late, but if it had been in service when F-4 Phantom was struggling against MIG-17s, MIG-19s and MIG-21s, only 2 to 4 F-14s were needed to wipe out the entire Vietnamese Airforce. That is how big a leap it was to go from F-4 Phantom to F-14 Tomcat.
@@wg4112 The Tomcat was designed from the onset to receive 50-inch dia, 27klb thrust class turbines (F401,F110, eventually navalized F119 on the ASF-14). So floridaman is half correct, the Tomcat for most of its life flew with the crummy TF30s that couldn't bring the required thrust power. Had the Navy pushed through with the F401, they would have flown the first naval supercruising fighter-interceptor, equipped with state-of-the-art avionics and weaponry. No doubt the reliability of the F100 core later on would cause problems but I'm sure Pratt could fix it with little money (they could always made it better but it took F110 posing a threat to motivate them).
@@wg4112there are many variations of stalls. “It didn’t stall, it was called compressor stalls” bro what. The shit engines would stall out in level flight
In 1975, my parents took me along in a flight to San Franciso International Airport to meet and care for Vietnamese orphans during their stopovers before flying on to families in other parts of the country. My contribution was bringing a lot of my toys and playing with the kids, who were roughly the same age as I was.
Cool story! Was just becoming aware of life as kid during *the war against the Vietnam War,* here in the colonies. (States) Tinytown isolated USA: we had a 'peacenick' candlelight march down main street...they were met with general abuse from the Hawks, rednecks. Sad self inflicted bad time in America too. Mom's good friend in the neighborhood lost her only son (only child I thnk), last known, wounded, he was shot out of a helicopter sling over the jungle.
Interesting video. I worked for Grumman Aerospace on Long Island, New York and worked building the Tomcats in the final assembly plant in Calverton, N,Y., Grumman's final assembly plant No.6. I Spent 15 years on the Tomcat line building all it's variants, prototypes, the Iranian cats and maintaining the chase plane old No.2 , ( the second Tomcat built ). It was a very sad day watching the last plane leave the factory. It was still better than the Hornet, hands down. Thanks for the video.
Yes, and much better looking. I have heard that the reason it was dropped is that it was not easy to maintain. They hadn't optimised the design for maintenance. Maybe the f15 was designed better for that.
I’m not a pilot but I remember going to Emerald Isle when I was super young and watching them fly over. As a child I loved every minute of it. They’re a beautiful fighter jet.
@@markaurelius61 Anything with swing wings is going to require a lot more inspection and maintenance, no matter how strong you build it that pivot is still a weak point and more prone to fatigue. And that is leaving out the problems making the TF30 work with the Tomcat a plane it was in no way designed for.
I saw my first in the spring of 1972 at Pax River. The one I saw crashed with the pilot being killed a few months later. My son hooked many of them up to the catapults in the mid 1990s aboard the GW.
Just for knowing, the F-14 Fast Eagle 102 is at our museum here in Midland. There is one painted like it at Reagan Museum and another at Pensacola. The first issued F-14 was bellied in and its cockpit and nose section is at Hickory in North Carolina.
The museum in Quonset used to do open cockpit days but they got rid of the plane. I forget where that one went but cradle of aviation has test 3 and they just got the last one to fly for the US from the Bethpage plant.
@bruceday6799 If you ever find yourself on Long Island be sure to check that out. It's near the field where Lindbergh took off in Spirit of St. Louis. Also, if you've ever seen the video of the first Tomcat to fly, crashing into the woods due to hydraulic failure - that's Calverton. They have a Tomcat up on a pedestal with a Phoenix on display next to it. There's also an A-6 Intruder in the park.
This is much more than just the role of Tomcats in Vietnam; though short, it's well produced and thoughtful. Even the voice-over projected the right tone of compassion and authority.
The US Marine helping people up onto the roof of the US Embassy at the 7:12 timestamp is my old company gunny, Gunnery Sergeant Woodruff, who I had the honor of serving with in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California from 1985 to 1987. Our Battalion was famously known as The Walking Dead. Gunny Woodruff was an awesome Marine and even got his photo taken and published in TIME magazine from a story about the evacuation of Saigon. He retired a Sergeant Major. As for the Tomcat serving in Vietnam, I'll be damned... You learn something new every day. I love that fighter jet!
Great info. A few F-14 books have this information. Oddly, the Marine AV8As were on ships in the South China Sea in the very late 60s yet it is rarely mentioned. What involvement in Vietnam is not known.
The US Marines did not accept its first AV8A into service until 6 Jan 1971, with initial testing beginning at PAX River NAS on 26 Jan of that year. The AV8A/C did not see service in Vietnam. The first Marine Corps attack squadron to deploy overseas with the Harrier was VMA-513 aboard the USS Tripoli in 1974. The Tripoli's final tour in Vietnam was in 1967 for Operation Badger Hunt. The Tripoli supported this operation until 27 Nov 67. It entered Danang on the 29th and began transferring the Marines of the battalion landing team and their supporting elements to USS Valley Forge. The next day, 30 November, Valley Forge relieved Tripoli as flagship, TG 76.5; and Tripoli got underway to return to the United States via Okinawa and Yokosuka, Japan. It arrived in San Diego on 23 December 1967 and began post-deployment standdown. In short, the Harrier saw no service in Vietnam as it wasn't deployed to the zone of operations.
I never knew the Tomcat was a Vietnam vet! I saw a pair of these on display at Hamilton Ontario airshow they were amazing in flight A roar of thunder as they went vertical Into the stratosphere in seconds....
Did you watch the video? The ground forces had already all pulled out by 1973 and American involvement in the war was officially over. Here are some facts for you: "On 15 January 1973, all U.S. combat activities were suspended. Lê Đức Thọ and Henry Kissinger, along with the PRG Foreign Minister Nguyễn Thị Bình and a reluctant President Thiệu, signed the Paris Peace Accords on 27 January 1973. This officially ended direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. All U.S. forces personnel were completely withdrawn by March 1973" So there was a peace treaty and no war. This was an evacuation (not a war) of the remaining American officials still left in what was still held by South Vietnam. Since the F-14 neither saw combat nor shot down any enemy aircraft (as no verified claims exist just "testimonies") it's quite a stretch to call it a "Vietnam vet". The Vietnam vets are the soldiers who saw active service in the actual war. Don't misuse the definition of a vet or apply it to anything you like. Veterans are *people*
Interesting to see that the F-14 did some work in Nam. One of the most awesome aircraft ever. I never did get a chance to see on up close and personal during the few times it came to Toronto for the CNE.
Only 5 years later, the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) sailed thru that freak electrical storm in the Pacific Ocean and a couple of its Tomcats finally got to engage some targets near Hawaii. It's still classified to this day.
C-130’s were also making quite a few sorties to evacuate Vietnamese citizens. I know because my father was a pilot flying these heartbreaking missions.
I'd heard that some Tomcats made it to Vietnam but the story I got was that a couple had been brought to Da Bang Airbase and bunkered against mortar fire. Figures Enterprise had em first. I believe they had just been through overhaul. Cuz it would've required upgrades to cats and arresting spools. We (Constellation) got them in March 76 when she left Bremerton and returned to North Island.
No Tomcat ever operated on land base airports in Vietnam.. They were brand spanking new there is no way they would have risked having such new planes on the ground there, and risk capture. They had very strict orders about not going anywhere deep inland where they could get shot down over land and wrecks captured for soviet reverse engineering.
Even with the current F-35 the Navy still doesn’t have the capability they had with the F-14. Nothing that has come along has been able to meet the same capabilities of that incredible aircraft. The F-14 was retired because it became to expensive to operate not because it couldn’t still operate successfully.
My cousins died due to the Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne cutting through the USS Frank E. Evans during the Vietnam conflict. 3 Brothers all died amongst their crewmen. Very sad times.
My dad is vietnamese and he lived in the vietnam war, and he said near the end of the war he would see A-37s, F-4s, and F-100s flying around, and he thought the US had came back to vietnam, but it was really V.P.A.F captured aircraft from airbases in the south. That gives me a perspective that the U.S. left a lot of aircraft behind.
Imagine being one of these fist of the fleet combat air missions in a brand spanking new tomcat a model whoooo wee the thing is you wouldn’t know it at the time just how special this aircraft would be and an icon it remains
The F-14 never had a chance to be involved in a real battle for the United States until its retirement. The only significant combat experience was when Iranian pilots flew the F-14 and defeated Iraqi Soviet-made MiGs for about eight years. The United States reviewed these incidents to understand various aspects and improve the design of the F/A-18 and future generations of fighters. In this regard, the U.S. owes something to the Iranian pilots. also, not to mention that Iranian pilots were trained in the U.S
Don't know how secret the program was but if only the Tomcat engaged a MIG- 21 in Vietnam....although it was a great fighter itself can you imagine the pilot of the MIG-21 seeing an F-14 for the first time.....kinda like Final countdown kinda stuff.
@minthouse6338 oh come on, they at the very least know they saw something new....twin vertical stabilizers and tandem crew with navy markings.....certainly not the same performance unless you have seen many F-111s in air to air mode....
Saw the very last flight. Right over the corridor of central Florida. The corridor is used by the USAF and I guess the Tomcats were sent that route. Right over my house. It was my first clue the boat was back. My cousin was on board. Few days later we were talking about the Tomcats he worked on and that was the last squadron. I told him I'd seen them fly over. The only time I'd ever seen any Navy jet in a USAF flight corridor and the only time I'd ever seen a Tomcat. I knew it too. The retirement. Cool but sad to watch.
To Grisbane. Horse sh*t. Iran had absolutely nothing to do with what fighter was developed further. The *tax payers* did. The same hapless clowns being taxed for a crapload of expensive weapon systems against some hypothetical enemy (usually a third world country who barely can keep their outdated planes flying). If you're willing to pay even more taxes then go ahead and work even harder or tighten your belt. Others might not be so keen to see even more of their money be eaten up... *Tax payers* keep the birds flying. But don't ever demand too much from the tax payers or things can turn out nasty.
the tomcat might just be the best fighter ever put on a carrier . its just sad that the navy went with the f35 and super hornet instead of the ST 21 super tomcat , that thing would have been absolutely dominate
Exactly 💯. They've updated the F-15 as the EX, Dick Cheney and his cronies who had large shares in Boeing company had a vested interest in the so called super Hornet!
no F14 really served in RVN, but they did make one or two passes over Vietnam after we cleared out. Wanta call out the real work horse? Then look at the F100 and F4
I worked in San Diego near miramar. Saw the f14’s then f-18’s and now the f-35. Same with the ch-46 and Osprey. Still Ike the F-14 even if it’s Phoenix missles we’re no good.
The F-14 never had a chance to be involved in a real battle for the United States until its retirement. The only significant combat experience was when Iranian pilots flew the F-14 and defeated Iraqi Soviet-made MiGs for about eight years. The United States reviewed these incidents to understand various aspects and improve the design of the F/A-18 and future generations of fighters. In this regard, the U.S. owes something to the Iranian pilots. also, not to mention that Iranian pilots were trained in the U.S
Yep, the first Gulf of Sidra Incident, Aug 19th 1981, you'd think the dummies would have learned but they came back for more in 89, "No need being dumb if you ain't gonna show it", grandma Craig, circa 1972.
Some further info: -the squadron was VF-41 Black Aces. -The hostiles were Libyan Sukuhoi 22 Fitters -As of this comment(and to my knowledge) this was the last deployment of VF-41 -The 2 Libyan pilots were recovered (from my info on books)
Vietnam was a really good example of the hubris America has developed due to its technological advances. We can build war machines that get better and better, yet keep losing wars because we never learn lessons.
Military/Industrial Complex on full display. All that money spent on a aircraft program that saw a little duty in Vietnam, a couple smaller Mid-Eastern skirmishes and now they are being scrapped.!
Without having their AIM-54 Phoenix missiles and ROE requiring visual confirmation the Tomcat would not have performed much better than the F-4 with the exception of target identification with its powerful radar.
Tomcat out turns the F-4 by a lot in both and low speed engagements thanks to those wings. Also has an internal gun unlike the F4 so in a gun fight it would be less aerodynamically hindered. MIG would be stuck with ambush tactics, get only 1 shot at killing the Tomcat, it can't outrun it, can't out turn it.. if it fails to surprise kill the Tomcat, the MiG dies every single time. Viet Cong didn't have the later variants that could possibly (still not likely) get away. Also the 21 has real issues in slow speed flight, as well as it has 0 nose down authority without almost guaranteeing a flameout. You would need a 90's era BiS variant of the 21 at least to seriously challenge even an early F-14 with a competent pilot.
Radar superiority or not, requiring VID negates the advantage - at that point you’re in a dogfight. Both the F-4 and Tomcat would do well on such a scenario, but yeah - without perfect IFF and ROE allowing long-range missiles, the F-14s presence was kinda pointless. It definitely would have been intimidating as hell to be flying for the North Koreans knowing this new magical aircraft wasn’t just flying, but in “your” airspace.
Aim54a was restricted to bombers, And not really, if they get into dogfights they can suffer an engine failure. Tomcats also bleed alot of speeds in turns
@@kurnass2000 a) Tell that to the Iranians, plenty of AIM-54a took out tactical fighters. b) Dogfighting did not automatically induce engine failures, it was a decent dogfighter when loaded correctly, esp. down low. c) It's a big plane.
Most did. Among the most successful immigrant groups in America, particularly given the circumstances of their arrival (refugees, not skilled worker visa holders.)
I remember watching the fall of Saigon thinking wow. I was thankful we would never have to deal with such a shameful retreat again. Joe Biden and General Miley in Afghanistan said, hold my beer! Watch.
You mean the withdrawal of the 2,500 troops that remained when Biden took office? The biggest drop off happened the year prior, after the Trump administration negotiated an "if you promised not to be evil" agreement with the Taliban (without including the Afghan government in the process). That cratered any chance that the Afghan government might work out any sort of shared-power agreement, and the secrecy surrounding it let the Taliban claim all kinds of things to scare regional authorities into submission. On top of that, the promised withdrawal date inherited by the Biden administration was May 1st, so they somehow stretched out the schedule to August and made it feel abrupt, all at the same time. It was never going to end well, it was just a matter of how badly we were going to screw it up. Hey, at least our nation-building worked out in Iraq, right?
How could we "retreat" from Vietnam when all the combat forces had been pulled out two years prior? Nobody was there to retreat, there was an evacuation. Trump administration in February 2020 negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set a date certain of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal. And the Trump administration kept to the pact, reducing U.S. troop levels from about 13,000 to 2,500, even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership “I started the process. All the troops are coming back home. They couldn’t stop the process. Twenty-one years is enough, don’t we think?” djt
I mean I guess this was interesting but it was borderline clickbait since the video is far more focused on the evacuation of Vietnam and the Tomcat did almost nothing in Vietnam
This brings tears to my eyes, my last CO in the Marine was Col Gene Berry, he flew the last Marine Huey out of Vietnam off the embassy. He was an awesome man!
They might not have said it to you when you came back but… Welcome Home! My dad was in the Army in Vietnam he came back and My cousin JonJon’s real dad was killed in Vietnam. My dad told me about San Francisco International so Welcome home!
My company gunny from my days in the Marine Corps probably rode on that Huey. He was one of the last Marines to leave the Embassy after the building was cleared. He had a framed copy of the TIME magazine article that detailed the fall of Saigon and his picture was in it.
@@norikotakaya14292 ooh rah!
Salute from India 🙏
I worked the Flight Deck for VF-1 as an AME Troubleshooter during the '74-'75 WESTPAC cruise on board the USS Enterprise. For five days in late April the Pilots and Launch Crew (myself included!) manned two 'Alert 5' F-14 Tomcats sitting on the waist catapults waiting for the Captain to give us the GO signal to launch. No take-offs and landings... just waiting as the ship tooled up and down Yankee Station. Pilots and RIOs were strapped in and all pre-flight checks were done. 'Alert 5' meant we had five minutes to get our jets airborne and I'm here to tell you we were READY! Finally on April 29th we got the order to launch and on that day F-14 Tomcats flew Air Cover missions over Vietnam in support of the Evacuation of Saigon. This went on into the next day and then we were done.
I was a PR VF1 so I probably knew you!
The pilot who flew this F-14 in Vietnam was named 'Hooter' Gibson. To quote 'hooter', 'we were very proud of our front line fighter F-4 Phantom as it was best in the world, but then came F-14 Tomcat that made F-4 Phantom look completely obsolete. I mean, it could out-turn the Phantom, it could out-accelerate the Phantom, it could out-climb the Phantom and it could out-weapon system the Phantom. In a sense, it was a bit of a letdown to see something you are so proud of suddenly become so obsolete'. F-14 Tomcat came too late, but if it had been in service when F-4 Phantom was struggling against MIG-17s, MIG-19s and MIG-21s, only 2 to 4 F-14s were needed to wipe out the entire Vietnamese Airforce. That is how big a leap it was to go from F-4 Phantom to F-14 Tomcat.
And THAT was with the horrible engines the first run of F-14s were built with. Underpowered and prone to stall.
@@FloridaManMatty it didn't stall and it wasn't under powered, it was compressor stalls which are different
Wow, thanks for that, that’s wild.
@@wg4112 The Tomcat was designed from the onset to receive 50-inch dia, 27klb thrust class turbines (F401,F110, eventually navalized F119 on the ASF-14). So floridaman is half correct, the Tomcat for most of its life flew with the crummy TF30s that couldn't bring the required thrust power. Had the Navy pushed through with the F401, they would have flown the first naval supercruising fighter-interceptor, equipped with state-of-the-art avionics and weaponry. No doubt the reliability of the F100 core later on would cause problems but I'm sure Pratt could fix it with little money (they could always made it better but it took F110 posing a threat to motivate them).
@@wg4112there are many variations of stalls. “It didn’t stall, it was called compressor stalls” bro what. The shit engines would stall out in level flight
The shape of F14 is iconic. I don't know how to explain it but to me it looks so beautifully proportioned and powerful.
You explained it perfectly
The F-14 and F-16 both look incredibly iconic.
There’s just something that the F-18 misses here.
Power and beauty
@@QasibrOh, the F-15 doesn’t exist then?
In 1975, my parents took me along in a flight to San Franciso International Airport to meet and care for Vietnamese orphans during their stopovers before flying on to families in other parts of the country. My contribution was bringing a lot of my toys and playing with the kids, who were roughly the same age as I was.
should have told them to go back to vietnam
Cool story!
Was just becoming aware of life as kid during *the war against the Vietnam War,* here in the colonies. (States)
Tinytown isolated USA: we had a 'peacenick' candlelight march down main street...they were met with general abuse from the Hawks, rednecks.
Sad self inflicted bad time in America too.
Mom's good friend in the neighborhood lost her only son (only child I thnk), last known, wounded, he was shot out of a helicopter sling over the jungle.
Glad you could give some good memories to those kids who just lost their home.
Interesting video. I worked for Grumman Aerospace on Long Island, New York and worked building the Tomcats in the final assembly plant in Calverton, N,Y., Grumman's final assembly plant No.6. I Spent 15 years on the Tomcat line building all it's variants, prototypes, the Iranian cats and maintaining the chase plane old No.2 , ( the second Tomcat built ). It was a very sad day watching the last plane leave the factory. It was still better than the Hornet, hands down. Thanks for the video.
Yes, and much better looking. I have heard that the reason it was dropped is that it was not easy to maintain. They hadn't optimised the design for maintenance. Maybe the f15 was designed better for that.
I’m not a pilot but I remember going to Emerald Isle when I was super young and watching them fly over. As a child I loved every minute of it. They’re a beautiful fighter jet.
@@markaurelius61 Anything with swing wings is going to require a lot more inspection and maintenance, no matter how strong you build it that pivot is still a weak point and more prone to fatigue. And that is leaving out the problems making the TF30 work with the Tomcat a plane it was in no way designed for.
🙏 Respect & Salute to Sir Joe Moore! Thank You So Much for your love & care to help build us the Grumman F14 Tomcats! ... 🙏🌷🌿🌍💜🕊🇺🇸
Thanks for you input Joe. Do you have any good stories from back when you worked at the plant?
I saw my first in the spring of 1972 at Pax River. The one I saw crashed with the pilot being killed a few months later. My son hooked many of them up to the catapults in the mid 1990s aboard the GW.
Just for knowing, the F-14 Fast Eagle 102 is at our museum here in Midland. There is one painted like it at Reagan Museum and another at Pensacola. The first issued F-14 was bellied in and its cockpit and nose section is at Hickory in North Carolina.
The museum in Quonset used to do open cockpit days but they got rid of the plane. I forget where that one went but cradle of aviation has test 3 and they just got the last one to fly for the US from the Bethpage plant.
@@ronaldkonkoma4356 Wow!
@bruceday6799
If you ever find yourself on Long Island be sure to check that out. It's near the field where Lindbergh took off in Spirit of St. Louis.
Also, if you've ever seen the video of the first Tomcat to fly, crashing into the woods due to hydraulic failure - that's Calverton. They have a Tomcat up on a pedestal with a Phoenix on display next to it. There's also an A-6 Intruder in the park.
@@ronaldkonkoma4356 I envy you with regards to the A-6
@@bruceday6799 I'm praying that one day I can get down your way and that Collings F-4 Phantom will still be flying.
I served aboard Enterprise '74 - '75. The first F-14 WESPAC squadron aboard was VF1-- Wolfpack. That is the sleekest Navy bird ever.
This is much more than just the role of Tomcats in Vietnam; though short, it's well produced and thoughtful. Even the voice-over projected the right tone of compassion and authority.
The US Marine helping people up onto the roof of the US Embassy at the 7:12 timestamp is my old company gunny, Gunnery Sergeant Woodruff, who I had the honor of serving with in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California from 1985 to 1987. Our Battalion was famously known as The Walking Dead. Gunny Woodruff was an awesome Marine and even got his photo taken and published in TIME magazine from a story about the evacuation of Saigon. He retired a Sergeant Major. As for the Tomcat serving in Vietnam, I'll be damned... You learn something new every day. I love that fighter jet!
I flew F-14's back in '87. They were extremely difficult to land on carriers and to refuel in air.
Great info. A few F-14 books have this information. Oddly, the Marine AV8As were on ships in the South China Sea in the very late 60s yet it is rarely mentioned. What involvement in Vietnam is not known.
The US Marines did not accept its first AV8A into service until 6 Jan 1971, with initial testing beginning at PAX River NAS on 26 Jan of that year. The AV8A/C did not see service in Vietnam. The first Marine Corps attack squadron to deploy overseas with the Harrier was VMA-513 aboard the USS Tripoli in 1974. The Tripoli's final tour in Vietnam was in 1967 for Operation Badger Hunt. The Tripoli supported this operation until 27 Nov 67. It entered Danang on the 29th and began transferring the Marines of the battalion landing team and their supporting elements to USS Valley Forge. The next day, 30 November, Valley Forge relieved Tripoli as flagship, TG 76.5; and Tripoli got underway to return to the United States via Okinawa and Yokosuka, Japan. It arrived in San Diego on 23 December 1967 and began post-deployment standdown. In short, the Harrier saw no service in Vietnam as it wasn't deployed to the zone of operations.
Loveing the VF 1 Wolfpack footage thank you Fly Navy 💙
VF1 and VF2 just look so good. The Wolfpack is my favourite
I never knew the Tomcat was a Vietnam vet! I saw a pair of these on display at Hamilton Ontario airshow they were amazing in flight A roar of thunder as they went vertical Into the stratosphere in seconds....
Did you watch the video?
The ground forces had already all pulled out by 1973 and American involvement in the war was officially over. Here are some facts for you: "On 15 January 1973, all U.S. combat activities were suspended. Lê Đức Thọ and Henry Kissinger, along with the PRG Foreign Minister Nguyễn Thị Bình and a reluctant President Thiệu, signed the Paris Peace Accords on 27 January 1973. This officially ended direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. All U.S. forces personnel were completely withdrawn by March 1973"
So there was a peace treaty and no war. This was an evacuation (not a war) of the remaining American officials still left in what was still held by South Vietnam. Since the F-14 neither saw combat nor shot down any enemy aircraft (as no verified claims exist just "testimonies") it's quite a stretch to call it a "Vietnam vet".
The Vietnam vets are the soldiers who saw active service in the actual war. Don't misuse the definition of a vet or apply it to anything you like. Veterans are *people*
@@McLarenMercedes🤓☝️
Interesting to see that the F-14 did some work in Nam. One of the most awesome aircraft ever. I never did get a chance to see on up close and personal during the few times it came to Toronto for the CNE.
Only 5 years later, the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) sailed thru that freak electrical storm in the Pacific Ocean and a couple of its Tomcats finally got to engage some targets near Hawaii. It's still classified to this day.
Never knew F-14s were flown in Viet Nam. Thanks!
Absolutely brilliant channel. Keep the content coming !
The idea that F-14s could have flown in the same sky as MiG-19s is wild to me.
I had no idea. One of the greatest fighter planes ever made.
C-130’s were also making quite a few sorties to evacuate Vietnamese citizens. I know because my father was a pilot flying these heartbreaking missions.
This is such a great channel. Thankyou.
Interesting video and also for historical facts I never knew the Tom Cat was in Nam.
A great impressive plane
Top notch video, many thanks.
Another great video, thanks!
I'd heard that some Tomcats made it to Vietnam but the story I got was that a couple had been brought to Da Bang Airbase and bunkered against mortar fire. Figures Enterprise had em first. I believe they had just been through overhaul. Cuz it would've required upgrades to cats and arresting spools.
We (Constellation) got them in March 76 when she left Bremerton and returned to North Island.
No Tomcat ever operated on land base airports in Vietnam..
They were brand spanking new there is no way they would have risked having such new planes on the ground there, and risk capture.
They had very strict orders about not going anywhere deep inland where they could get shot down over land and wrecks captured for soviet reverse engineering.
Even with the current F-35 the Navy still doesn’t have the capability they had with the F-14. Nothing that has come along has been able to meet the same capabilities of that incredible aircraft. The F-14 was retired because it became to expensive to operate not because it couldn’t still operate successfully.
The F-35 is not intended to replace the F-14. It's to replace the F/A-18C legacy Hornet.
@@minthouse6338 I know, I was trying to say that the Navy still does not have the same capabilities it had before. Even when you include the F35.
My cousins died due to the Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne cutting through the USS Frank E. Evans during the Vietnam conflict. 3 Brothers all died amongst their crewmen. Very sad times.
my dad worked on the tomcat and your video is really good
My dad is vietnamese and he lived in the vietnam war, and he said near the end of the war he would see A-37s, F-4s, and F-100s flying around, and he thought the US had came back to vietnam, but it was really V.P.A.F captured aircraft from airbases in the south. That gives me a perspective that the U.S. left a lot of aircraft behind.
I always wondered if the Tomcat saw action in Vietnam...subscribed.
This is awesome, subbed
I really miss that bird. I am honored to have been able to work on them when I served in the Navy.
My Father was an engineer who designed the F-14, Bethpage New York USA! RIP
Shout out to "Hoot" Gibson. One of my favorite pilots ever. Imagine the leap from a F4 to the 14!
My favorit also, I was his PR in VF1
Imagine being one of these fist of the fleet combat air missions in a brand spanking new tomcat a model whoooo wee the thing is you wouldn’t know it at the time just how special this aircraft would be and an icon it remains
Wow so glad this popped up in my recommended!
5:58 I Saw This as apart of Another Documentary
The Freedom Of Man Know’s No bounds
Sad day when the F-14 was retired. I've tried to like the F-18 Hornet like I did the Tomcat, for some reason it just doesn't happen.
The F-14 never had a chance to be involved in a real battle for the United States until its retirement. The only significant combat experience was when Iranian pilots flew the F-14 and defeated Iraqi Soviet-made MiGs for about eight years. The United States reviewed these incidents to understand various aspects and improve the design of the F/A-18 and future generations of fighters. In this regard, the U.S. owes something to the Iranian pilots. also, not to mention that Iranian pilots were trained in the U.S
and let's not forget the robotech Veritech fighters that sure looked a lot like an F14 in plane mode - with added arms and head hanging underneath
Don't know how secret the program was but if only the Tomcat engaged a MIG- 21 in Vietnam....although it was a great fighter itself can you imagine the pilot of the MIG-21 seeing an F-14 for the first time.....kinda like Final countdown kinda stuff.
Don't think they be too surprised. They already seen an F-111.
@minthouse6338 oh come on, they at the very least know they saw something new....twin vertical stabilizers and tandem crew with navy markings.....certainly not the same performance unless you have seen many F-111s in air to air mode....
absolutely amazing video!
hard to believe , that the F-14 has been retired for several years
Two words. Dick Cheaney.
2006. Almost 20 years. How time flies.
Saw the very last flight. Right over the corridor of central Florida. The corridor is used by the USAF and I guess the Tomcats were sent that route.
Right over my house.
It was my first clue the boat was back. My cousin was on board. Few days later we were talking about the Tomcats he worked on and that was the last squadron.
I told him I'd seen them fly over. The only time I'd ever seen any Navy jet in a USAF flight corridor and the only time I'd ever seen a Tomcat.
I knew it too. The retirement. Cool but sad to watch.
thank Iran for that... or we would possibly have a Super Tomcat right now instead of the Super Hornet
To Grisbane. Horse sh*t. Iran had absolutely nothing to do with what fighter was developed further. The *tax payers* did. The same hapless clowns being taxed for a crapload of expensive weapon systems against some hypothetical enemy (usually a third world country who barely can keep their outdated planes flying).
If you're willing to pay even more taxes then go ahead and work even harder or tighten your belt. Others might not be so keen to see even more of their money be eaten up...
*Tax payers* keep the birds flying. But don't ever demand too much from the tax payers or things can turn out nasty.
the tomcat might just be the best fighter ever put on a carrier . its just sad that the navy went with the f35 and super hornet instead of the ST 21 super tomcat , that thing would have been absolutely dominate
Exactly 💯.
They've updated the F-15 as the EX, Dick Cheney and his cronies who had large shares in Boeing company had a vested interest in the so called super Hornet!
@@colonalklink14 but they didn't retire the F-14 until 2006. That's a long, long time after Dick Cheney.
@@minthouse6338 He set the ball in motion.
the F-14 Fast Eagle 102 is at our museum here in Midland.
I had an operation for my frequent wind..
One of my all time favorites
Nice try you coverd the exit of vitnman under the cover of the "The F-14s that served in Vietnam"
keep up the great work
That White & Red livery though _ohhh my lorrrd_ 😍
My huey unit in Korea was put on alert at this time, told we would be operating off “LST’s”. Of course it was over too quickly.
We need a advance new version of Tomcat F14
Great valor for a great cause for a nation that didn’t understand it
no F14 really served in RVN, but they did make one or two passes over Vietnam after we cleared out. Wanta call out the real work horse? Then look at the F100 and F4
I lived in Da Nang for about 3 months. Was awesome
I worked C-141's in Dover,Del Transit Maint. in 1975 .
😮
Didnt know the USS ENTERPRISE had the first Tomcats to serve in conbat
I'm blown away! I had no idea Tomcat was in Vietnam!
Did you know the C-5 and SR-71 were also in Vietnam.
is DCS used for the Sim shots
Thank you 👍👍🤲🙏👏👏🙌🙌
I worked in San Diego near miramar. Saw the f14’s then f-18’s and now the f-35. Same with the ch-46 and Osprey. Still Ike the F-14 even if it’s Phoenix missles we’re no good.
it was Tan Sun NUT we are talking military operations here , not the international civil airport called Tan son Nhat !!
Which simulator do you use?
The F-14 never had a chance to be involved in a real battle for the United States until its retirement. The only significant combat experience was when Iranian pilots flew the F-14 and defeated Iraqi Soviet-made MiGs for about eight years. The United States reviewed these incidents to understand various aspects and improve the design of the F/A-18 and future generations of fighters. In this regard, the U.S. owes something to the Iranian pilots. also, not to mention that Iranian pilots were trained in the U.S
Sweep the wings.
Tomcat and eterprise (CVN-65) now gone
The first F-14 aerial kill was scored in 1981 in Libya.
Well, I think only around quarter of this video is directly related to the title
Fast Eagle 102
Yep, the first Gulf of Sidra Incident, Aug 19th 1981, you'd think the dummies would have learned but they came back for more in 89, "No need being dumb if you ain't gonna show it", grandma Craig, circa 1972.
Actually Iranian F-14's had a number of kills before that. They gave Saddam repeated beat downs in that war.
@@edwardpate6128 Seems to me that the 1980 kill was a gun kill against a helicopter, is that right?
Some further info:
-the squadron was VF-41 Black Aces.
-The hostiles were Libyan Sukuhoi 22 Fitters
-As of this comment(and to my knowledge) this was the last deployment of VF-41
-The 2 Libyan pilots were recovered (from my info on books)
Vietnam was a really good example of the hubris America has developed due to its technological advances. We can build war machines that get better and better, yet keep losing wars because we never learn lessons.
Don't F-up footage by forcing it in a wrong format!
"operation frequent wind" sounds like me after taco tuesday
I am 38 years old and I watched this fall happen...... Except it happened in Afghanistan...
You must have been really young to watch the Russians get out of Afghanistan.
@@minthouse6338 No I was alluding to the fall of Afghanistan several years ago being almost identical to the fall of Saigon.
انا عن نفسي هاته الصفقة اسمها صفقة السلام وتحية السلام الابذي وهي نوع من التحفيز والارادة والاستجابة الذعوات والتقرب والتوذذ من طرفين
VF-1 Wolfpack and VF-2 Bounty Hunters
Tomcats provided CAP during the 75 evac of Saigon. They never were used in actual air combat against NV Aircraft or never operated “Up North”
Well done, Mate.
Upthere with the best of the best
It made its name ironically, not in nam or the gulf war but in the Iran Iraq war. All F14 access belong to the IRIAF.
Nope. It made its name because of some dude called Tom Cruise and something about Top Gun.
Only 2 aircraft would i ever fly in EVER ! The F-14 TOMCAT or the FRS1 SEA HARRIER of our brilliant RN FLEETARM the argies didnt know what hit them
I remember way back in the mid 80's when the U.S. Embassy was bombed by someone in Gayroot.
Military/Industrial Complex on full display. All that money spent on a aircraft program that saw a little duty in Vietnam, a couple smaller Mid-Eastern skirmishes and now they are being scrapped.!
7:29 looks like war thunder visual scenario and aircraft
Hill between hill road up hill w curve line curve then a bunker in. Its A shade darker then Black. And a cannon😢
Damn, that SV pilot who defected is a slimeball.
I can’t get over how the narrator sounds like Gordon Ramsey
overkill engage....
👍
Кот Том - мой любимый самолёт!
7:40 nice use of DCS content
Without having their AIM-54 Phoenix missiles and ROE requiring visual confirmation the Tomcat would not have performed much better than the F-4 with the exception of target identification with its powerful radar.
Tomcat out turns the F-4 by a lot in both and low speed engagements thanks to those wings. Also has an internal gun unlike the F4 so in a gun fight it would be less aerodynamically hindered. MIG would be stuck with ambush tactics, get only 1 shot at killing the Tomcat, it can't outrun it, can't out turn it.. if it fails to surprise kill the Tomcat, the MiG dies every single time. Viet Cong didn't have the later variants that could possibly (still not likely) get away. Also the 21 has real issues in slow speed flight, as well as it has 0 nose down authority without almost guaranteeing a flameout. You would need a 90's era BiS variant of the 21 at least to seriously challenge even an early F-14 with a competent pilot.
Radar superiority or not, requiring VID negates the advantage - at that point you’re in a dogfight. Both the F-4 and Tomcat would do well on such a scenario, but yeah - without perfect IFF and ROE allowing long-range missiles, the F-14s presence was kinda pointless.
It definitely would have been intimidating as hell to be flying for the North Koreans knowing this new magical aircraft wasn’t just flying, but in “your” airspace.
Let's not forget the TCS and its 10x magnification which aided in VID scenarios.
Aim54a was restricted to bombers,
And not really, if they get into dogfights they can suffer an engine failure.
Tomcats also bleed alot of speeds in turns
@@kurnass2000 a) Tell that to the Iranians, plenty of AIM-54a took out tactical fighters.
b) Dogfighting did not automatically induce engine failures, it was a decent dogfighter when loaded correctly, esp. down low. c) It's a big plane.
I hope those who escaped found better lives in the US and elsewhere.
Most did. Among the most successful immigrant groups in America, particularly given the circumstances of their arrival (refugees, not skilled worker visa holders.)
So what did they actually DO?
Flew CAP missions.
Did you use War Thunder models ? Or something else.
Operation frequent wind lol!!!
I remember watching the fall of Saigon thinking wow. I was thankful we would never have to deal with such a shameful retreat again. Joe Biden and General Miley in Afghanistan said, hold my beer! Watch.
You mean the withdrawal of the 2,500 troops that remained when Biden took office? The biggest drop off happened the year prior, after the Trump administration negotiated an "if you promised not to be evil" agreement with the Taliban (without including the Afghan government in the process). That cratered any chance that the Afghan government might work out any sort of shared-power agreement, and the secrecy surrounding it let the Taliban claim all kinds of things to scare regional authorities into submission. On top of that, the promised withdrawal date inherited by the Biden administration was May 1st, so they somehow stretched out the schedule to August and made it feel abrupt, all at the same time. It was never going to end well, it was just a matter of how badly we were going to screw it up. Hey, at least our nation-building worked out in Iraq, right?
How could we "retreat" from Vietnam when all the combat forces had been pulled out two years prior?
Nobody was there to retreat, there was an evacuation.
Trump administration in February 2020 negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set a date certain of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal.
And the Trump administration kept to the pact, reducing U.S. troop levels from about 13,000 to 2,500, even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership
“I started the process. All the troops are coming back home. They couldn’t stop the process. Twenty-one years is enough, don’t we think?”
djt
That's how you take a new jet to IOC status
Why do I hear Gordon Ramsey.
What's with pushing all the helicopters into the ocean?
Just from memory, there wasn’t enough deck space to keep the “empties” and accommodate the new arrivals.
@@bradgoodman9137 that's correct - simply not enough deck space for the number of aircraft escaping out to the fleet.
2:13 Disgusting Repetition
Where Have I Seen This Before!?
AUSTRALIA IS LIKE ITALY IN WW2
I mean I guess this was interesting but it was borderline clickbait since the video is far more focused on the evacuation of Vietnam and the Tomcat did almost nothing in Vietnam
I have frequent-wind
Do I win a fiver ?