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Ohhhh the T-Rex version of the Tomcat!âŠthe âTom-Rexâ?âŠcall DCSâŠthey need a Jurassic Park theater!
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I grew up in California, so my first experience at a Waffle House was in Phoenix on my way to Pensacola for Flight School (so Iâm sort of keeping it on topic 
). It was good travel food, but nothing special. Now that I live on the east coast, they are everywhere. My wife likes WH, and sheâs happy weâre getting one locally. MeâŠnot so much. Last time I went to a WH on the road, we left and as soon as we hit the freeway onramp I needed a rest stop at the next offramp.
I ate at a WH in Pensacola in 1996âlast meal as a civilian before reporting to OCS at the Naval Air Station.
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The cows were a first step towards something great.
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Donât you mean DCS: Platypus âCommode: Modern Air Naval Operationsâ?
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Iâd like to add something related to the F-14:
My uncle had worked at Grumman in the '70s and '80s and was a big fan of the F-14; he sent a lot of related memorabilia to my grandfather, which ended up in my hands before he died. Lots of F-14 stickers, patches, cuff links, a watch, and some other small stuff, but one of the more interesting bits was one of these:
Itâs a tie clip for the IRIAF, made before the Iranian revolution. Apparently, these are pretty rare and they tend to command a premium (for what they are). Iâve also got a tie pin with an F-14 that has swinging wings, too!
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I wore this on my flight jacket from when I was an Ensign in 1986.
Note the canardsâŠthey were âwelded shutâ by the time I became a VF-32 Swordsman.
P.S. It has never been in a Waffle House.
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Glove Vanes.
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That advert sure shows how things have changed.
Now the bigger threats arenât so much bombers and cruise missiles, but subs and shoreline missiles. And the S-3 was retired almost 10 years ago. 
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Theyâve been gone from CVWâs for at least 15 years. And from what I understand, they havenât been used in an ASW role for quite a while before that.
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I love that add. For me it really represents all what the Tomcat stands for. Good job @GrummanPR 
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Seeing the Viking as tanker always pains me. That aircraft is supposed to be out there hunting 20â000t nuclear behemoths. Passing gas is below its dignityâŠ
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Technically, 13 years, 8 months, 6 days, 15 hours and 55 minutesâŠaccording to the metadata from this photo (date/time of the photo is 30 OCT 04 14:55 PST-wrote this at 1200 EDTâŠI think I did the math correctly)
I took this photo from the Flag Bridge aboard CV-74, returning from a WESTPAC deployment.
This was the cat launch of a fleet S-3âŠever.
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That photo with 6 x AIM-54 Phoenix loaded on the Tomcat is relatively rare. That load out was called the âDooms Day Loadâ since the F-14 could not trap back aboard carrying all six missiles. It was the load we would have used to hit the Backfires at long range before they got within AS-4 Kitchen range of the Battle GroupâŠin other words, WW III had begun.
If you went off the pointy end with six Phoenix, you were at least launching two to get below max-trap weightâŠand if you were launching two, you might as well be launching the other four because something bad was coming over the horizon.
I hope Heatblur faithfully represents the Tomcats as they were used in the Cold War. Long range intercept may not be as exciting as a dog fight or dropping a GBU, however it was a demanding skillâŠyou are 200+ Nm from the boat with the E-2C giving you vectors, trying to get into AIM-54 range of the bandits before they get in missile range of the carrierâŠessentially playing âBVR Chessâ
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and this was the last Pacific Fleet F-14 launch.
They still did a Atlantic Fleet deployment or two. But in the PACFLT it was all Rhinos after this. This occurred 1 minute after the last S-3 launch.
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You were on that deployment? Was that the one where the Stennis went DIW in the turning basin leaving North Island to start the cruise? That was a fun incident report to read and train on.
Nope - it wasnât that deployment. Underway went just fine. But yes, I was on the last PACFLT Tomcat and last S-3 ever deployment (and unfortunately we lost an S-3 & crewâBluewolf 704âon that deployment).
Also on that deployment, as the N-2 I had the âhonorâ of directing the last F-14 TARPS missionâŠironic because when I went through Naval Intelligence Officer Basic Course (NIOBC) in 1985, during the recce section they taught us all about TARPS but then said, âYou probably wonât need this because by the time you are in the Fleet, FA-18 SHARP recce pods will be on lineââŠyeah right, 19 years later Iâve still got F-14 TARPSâŠwhich was way better than SHARP anyway.
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