February 17, 2006
The end of an era.
Navy's F-14 fighter jet flies its final mission
By Steven Komarow, USA TODAY
The F-14 Tomcat, the fighter jet that soared into the national imagination in the movie Top Gun, has flown into the danger zone for the last time.
The Navy announced Thursday that the last F-14 combat mission was completed Feb. 8, when a pair of Tomcats landed aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt after one dropped a bomb in Iraq.
Capt. William Sizemore, who flew on that last mission, said the Tomcat will be missed.
"This is one of the best airplanes ever built, and it's sad to see it go away," Sizemore said in a Navy report from the ship. "It's just a beautiful airplane. And it just looks like the ultimate fighter." [...]
Not quite as bad as when the last F-4 was taken out of service, but close.
Well done, Tomcat.
