Assigned USS Forrestal.

Photographer unknown

Delivered to the US Navy as F-14A-120-GR and directly assigned to this Fleet Replaxcement Squadron (FRS) VF-101 Grim Reapers. The Tomcat was modified to F-14B(U)in 1998 and was moved to AMARC on 26 January 2005. It received inventory code 1K0173. The Cat was stricken on 27 July 2005 and scrapped soon after. This Tomcat followed me as two other pictures of the Cat can be found in the AirHistory archive! Just click the grey "combined data search" button below this picture and thick the boxes "photo by" and "registration / serial" to see them both.

Fighter Squadron (VF) 74 "Be-Devilers" was established on 16 April 1944 (as VBF-20) and disestablished 50 years later on 30 April 1994. It started to operate with the F4U Corsair, and these were followed by the F6F Hellcat, F8F Bearcat, F9F-8 Cougar, F4D-1 Skyray, F-4B Phantom II, F-4J, F-4S before transitioning in 1983 to the F-14A Tomcat and, from August 1988 this F-14B. With the Tomcat, the squadron was heavily involved in combat operations in Operation El Dorado Canyon (Libya, 1986), Operation Desert Shield (Iraq, 1990) and subsequently Operation Desert Storm (Iraq, 1991).