CVW-8 homecoming

March the 10th, 2006 marked a very historic moment when for the final time, the F-14 Tomcat returned to its home station at NAS Oceana after completing its last operational combat cruise onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). The 'Tomcatters' of Fighter Squadron 31 (VF-31) and the 'Black Lions' of Fighter Squadron 213 (VF-213) both flying the F-14D Tomcat merged together to give the family and friends who were at NAS Oceana a sight to behold as all twenty two Tomcats from both squadrons flew in a wedge formation over the station.

The return of the Tomcat marked the final operational combat cruise of the Grumman 'Cat' and begins the last stages of the transition to the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. VF-213 will lose their Tomcats immediately and begin their transition to the F/A-18F Super Hornet while VF-31 will continue to fly the Tomcat until September until they transition to the single seater F/A-18E Super Hornet. "Everyone has worked very hard and pulled together and with purpose to ensure we retire this naval aviation icon appropriately" Commander Richard LaBranche, CO of VF-31 was quoted as saying. "The decision of the Navy to decommission the Tomcat and move to the Super Hornet was to lighten the workload on the maintainers after recognizing the excessive amount of maintenance hours per flying hour it takes to keep the Tomcat operational. Retiring the Tomcat was a way to save the exhaustive efforts of our people and better spend their labours but saying goodbye to the Tomcat will be like saying goodbye to an old friend but in the best interests of our people, it must be done." Yet, even as the Tomcats' days were numbered, the fighter jet and its crews continued to show their adaptability. In December 2005, VF-213 was the first Navy aircraft to make use of the ROVER (Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receives) system. ROVER allowed ground forces to view via their specialised laptops what the aircrew onboard were seeing during reconnaissance and target identification missions.

Also returning to Oceana were the legacy Hornet squadrons, Strike Fighter Squadron 15 'Valions' and Strike Fighter Squadron 87 'Golden Warriors' who returned home with a range of inert weapons on their pylons including the very impressive looking AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER. All four Oceana based squadrons played a big part during the USS Theodore Roosevelts' cruise supporting maritime security operations and the global war on terrorism. During the deployment VF-31 together with VF-213 completed 1,163 combat sorties totalling some 6,876 flight hours and dropped nearly 10,000 pounds of ordnance. In total, Carrier Air Wing 8 flew exactly 10,000 sorties and logged nearly 30,750 flight hours in support of coalition troops on the ground.

VFA-15 Valions return home VFA-87 Golden Warriors return home

"VF-31 flew more sorties and with the highest sortie completion rate of any other Tomcat squadron in recent history, Cmdr LaBranche said, with more than a 99 percent sortie-completion rate and a 100 percent 'on-target' rate when ordnance was employed. This just goes to show that the sailors of this command performed magnificently throughout the five months of arduous combat operations. VF-31 has met every challenge head-on, succeeded in every endeavour and left a legacy befitting our new slogan as 'The last Cat standing'".

Many thanks to Mr. Troy Snead and his entire public affairs staff at NAS Oceana for giving me the opportunity to witness history.