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From: tighe@hydra.convex.com (Mike Tighe)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: F-14 in VietNam
Message-ID: <1991Jan12.013542.26088@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 12 Jan 91 01:35:42 GMT
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From: tighe@hydra.convex.com (Mike Tighe)
From: ron@hpfcso.fc.hp.com (Ron Miller)
 
> An assertion has been made over in rec.arts.movies that the F-14 was
> deployed to carriers whose A-6 aircraft were flying missions in Viet Nam.
> (Subject is the movie "Flight of the Intruder")
 
> Can anyone shed some facts and references on the subject? Dates, perhaps?
 
Carrier trials for the F-14 began in June of 1972 on-board the USS
Forrestal. In October of 1973, VF-1 and VF-2 (USS Enterprise) began
receiving F-14's. VF-1 became the first operational F-14 squadron to
qualify for daytime carrier operations in March 1974. The first deployment
of the F-14 was on-board the USS Enterprise in September of 1974.
 
The only VietNam era F-14 missions I know of were CAP missions. The first
was for the evacuation of Saigon in April of 1975, and the other was for
the Mayaguez rescue in May of 1975. As far as I know, they did not engage
any enemy aircraft.
 
I have not yet seen FOTI, but from your message, I would say if the movie
implies that the F-14 was operational while US forces were in-country, that
would be inaccurate.