I think we should all agree that the short lived TV series, Emerald Point NAS (set during the Cold War) was perhaps the greatest naval aviation centered television entertainment of all time!
Aside from the name (we all know it should have been “NAS Emerald Point”–based on NAS Oceana) there was not one single factual error in the entire series.
It is quite common for JO aviators to, on the drop of a hat, fly off to tropical locals in order to seduce an Admiral’s daughter. Good looking F-14 pilots don’t need to formally request leave if there is a good chance that they may “get lucky”.
When an officer is killed (by a sword) at a bachelor party, the NCIS investigation is always quickly closed without arrest if the prime suspect is an extraordinarily handsome F-14 pilot…obviously innocent…“boys will be boys”…an accidental death for sure.
Finally the practice of bringing Soviet Navy officers (one a KGB agent) to a Navy Master Jet Base was common in the Cold War…as was letting them have pretty much free access to the entire base so that one of them, (a young pilot, not the old KGB guy) they can meet and fall I’m love with a pretty US Navy officer who is the Admiral’s daughter…in fact it was encouraged.
The fact that I do not think we saw a single F-14 outside of the first episode (they filmed a Fly-In from a carrier) did not in anyway detract from the series!
That it was canceled in its second season (1984 after only 22 episodes total) is near criminal.
Perhaps the only saving grace is that it allowed Richard Dean Anderson (LT Simon Adams who eventually marries Celia Warren (Susan Dey yes Laurie from the “Partridge Family”), who is the oldest daughter of base’s Admiral (ably played by Dennis Weaver)) to star in MacGyver in 1985…which was the year I arrived at NAS Oceana and personally saw that Emerald Point NAS was completely accurate on all counts! (except the name).
I was personally a huge fan of Pensacola: Wings of Gold. Much more flying on that show, even if there weren’t any Tomcats. Plus, who knew the Colonel’s daughter would end up being a Terminator?
Yes…absolutely…created by the same folks that created Dynasty.
I can not tell you how disappointed I was when I got to VABEACH/Oceana only to find the Admiral (COMFITATKAEWWINGSLANT…yeah isn’t that something) did not have any eligible daughters…at least none that hung out at the O’Club…not that I did all that bad at the O’Club. Being an intel officer in a bar full of naval aviators had its benefits…you might say I was “unique”…some women dig that.
BTW, I met my wife (years later) at the Breezy Point O’Club on NAS Norfolk.
P.S. I think mentioning NAS Oceana in the 1980’s is sufficiently associated with F-14s to qualify for entry in this thread. However if not…the “FIT” in COMFITATKAEWWINGSLANT stands for FITWING ONE, which was the purely F-14 wing at the time…that should do it.
The bachelor party was at some medieval-theme restaurant that had swords as decorations on the walls…which at some point the F-14 aviators took from the walls and started having sword fights…alcohol was evolved (I would have loved to have seen that OPREP 3 NAVY BLUE UNIT SITREP.)
In all fairness, except for the bachelor party not being held in a strip joint, the grabbing the swords and sword fighting is…well…Ive done…err…I mean Iv’e seen similar enough antics on cruise…just saying.
I’ll buy that. Except, I (still) take exception to the episode with the Chief Engineer in command being weak and a poor commander. To be a Reactor Officer on a modern CVN, you have to command a ship first, usually a large-ish Gator Freighter now, and back in the day often a CGN, and for most of the time I was aboard, the RO was senior to the XO, and often played acting CO when the Captain was gone (which led to an AMAZING time in Rio de Janiero, because of Ronald Reagan’s funeral).
