Last Tomcats roar home at Oceana.

Publication: Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2006 The Virginian-Pilot

Byline: Jack Dorsey

Mar. 11--VIRGINIA BEACH -- They ended their final mission with wings swept back, 22 abreast, at 300 mph in about as perfect a formation as anyone had seen the Tomcats make in their 36 years of flying.

Screaming above a crowd of 1,000 people who turned out to cheer and cry, the returning F-14s ended an era Friday. "If you could look behind the sunglasses of these pilots out here watching this, you'd see a lot of wet eyes," Cmdr. Mark Black said. "I know that's why I wore sunglasses today." Black is a former F-14 pilot, with 3,500 flight hours, and now skipper of the "Red Rippers" of Strike Fighter Squadron 11, an F/A-18 Super Hornet Squadron at Oceana Naval Air...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.