F14 Tomcat
- Thread starter Malo83
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8th row down, 3rd to the right ...on the tail.
Didn't he say he changed squadrons?
This one was always rather interesting. Does it really looking like a "Pukin Dog"?
Red eyed growling black panther, with wings of course.This one was always rather interesting. Does it really looking like a "Pukin Dog"?
That one is weird. Apparently Playboy wasn't happy that they were using something that looked like their logo and threatened to sue. Unless they used an official Playboy stencil to make it accurate.
But they had the most bland squadron name on the planet.
Yeah - I'm not just a fighter pilot. I'm an Evaluator!
So, a couple of things...
"Vandy One" - the black jet with the Playboy Bunny was approved by Playboy and it started with an F-4 in the same paint. I think Playboy liked the product tie-in. Post Tailhook Navy got rid of the Rabbit, but kept that gloss black paint.
I started in VF-84, the "Jolly Rogers". My favorite paint. 6th row, 3rd from left.
I was then an instructor in VF-101, the "Grim Reapers". Another great name and paint*. I don't see it in picture.
I then went to Carrier Air wing Eight as staff LSO. I flew with VF-14, "Top Hatters" and VF-41 "Black Aces" in that tour. 5th row, 1st and 4th, respectively.
The "Pukin' Dogs" were a great bunch of guys. The mascot is a Griffon. A mythical beast of great power that is part lion and part eagle. Some Commander's wife, back in Vietnam, remarked that the Griffon looked like a "Puking Dog", Guys in the squadron liked it, and so the name stuck.
*VF-101 traces the name and squadron symbol back to the days before World War Two, when Torpedo Squadron Ten asked a young local cartoonist to help them draw their squadron mascot, a Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper became known as "Moe" for "Mow 'em down".
That cartoonist was Walt Disney.
View attachment 53669
"Vandy One" - the black jet with the Playboy Bunny was approved by Playboy and it started with an F-4 in the same paint. I think Playboy liked the product tie-in. Post Tailhook Navy got rid of the Rabbit, but kept that gloss black paint.
I started in VF-84, the "Jolly Rogers". My favorite paint. 6th row, 3rd from left.
I was then an instructor in VF-101, the "Grim Reapers". Another great name and paint*. I don't see it in picture.
I then went to Carrier Air wing Eight as staff LSO. I flew with VF-14, "Top Hatters" and VF-41 "Black Aces" in that tour. 5th row, 1st and 4th, respectively.
The "Pukin' Dogs" were a great bunch of guys. The mascot is a Griffon. A mythical beast of great power that is part lion and part eagle. Some Commander's wife, back in Vietnam, remarked that the Griffon looked like a "Puking Dog", Guys in the squadron liked it, and so the name stuck.
*VF-101 traces the name and squadron symbol back to the days before World War Two, when Torpedo Squadron Ten asked a young local cartoonist to help them draw their squadron mascot, a Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper became known as "Moe" for "Mow 'em down".
That cartoonist was Walt Disney.
View attachment 53669
I'm partial to the VF-1 look near the upper left. It just looks faster, to me. Just make sure mine is a Delta with F-110's in it.
I liked the Jolly Rogers, as well as VF-31
Could that be a mythical history about the origin of the insignia? VF-10 was supposedly a WWII squadron that was disbanded after the war. I know Walt Disney authorized his artists to create hundreds of different military insignia during the war.
I'd seen the Top Hatters livery before. I was just a kid watching the Winds of War miniseries on ABC, and I thought I saw the top hat on one of the tails.
That wasn’t a combat squadron though. Their job was evaluating new weapons and tactics.
Not really mythical. I never said continuously operated, like the Top Hatters (which dates back to WWI continuously).
I don’t recall the history exactly, but the Grim Reapers went away at some point, and the name was adopted by a new squadron. That’s done on occasion.
The Grim Reapers were shut down again in 2006, with the Tomcat sunset.
But reinstated as VFA-101, a Navy F-35 Squadron a few years later.
Shut down again when the test and evaluation (and training) mission they were doing was complete.
I’m sure the Hornet guys had something to do with it. Their loathing for Tomcat guys and traditions is legendary.
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I was referring to the Tomcat.
I was thinking of the claim that Walt Disney created the insignia as a young artist. I find it unlikely as most sources have VF-10 being established in 1942 as the first Grim Reapers, and at that point Walt Disney had a large company with many artists working for him. Walt definitely had his artists working on drawings to be used in the war effort. That was extremely well documented.
Art Disney created for the armed forces in World War II explored in new exhibit
Kevin Staniec remembers seeing the old black-and-white photograph for the first time about five years ago, not long after he came to work as an arts programmer for the city of Irvine and the Great …
www.dailybreeze.com
This is really cool though.
Mickey Mouse morale: Disney on the World War II home front
One day after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, U.S. Army troops requisitioned half of Walt Disney’s studio for their use. Providing not only space, Disney artists, animators, and Walt himself pitched in, enlisting Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and other beloved Disney characters in the war effort.
americanhistory.si.edu
Always heard that it was Walt Disney - perhaps he wasn't unknown at the time, though that always made a great punchline, but Walt nonetheless...
That's what this guy heard as well. Awesome photo on that page, showing the original 'Moe"
That's what this guy heard as well. Awesome photo on that page, showing the original 'Moe"
Oh. I was just skeptical that Walt would draw it himself - especially the description of him being a young artist. He would have been 40 at the time. Walt Disney never considered himself a very good artist, but he was definitely the idea man and has tons of resources at his disposal. He would occasionally do work himself, like when voiced Mickey Mouse for little pieces for the Mickey Mouse Club.
I looked over the text. He mentioned that Walt has his artists create it.
Disney artists also did some squadron insignia work for the Navy that's not as well documented as the Peterson Field production. Commander Jimmy Flatley, first CO of the VF-10 "Grim Reapers", was personal friends with Walt Disney and Walt's crew came up with the "Grim Reaper" flying skeleton logo for VF-10. My last tour in the Navy was with the VF-101 "Grim Reapers" at NAS Oceana. We did not trace our lineage back to VF-10 but we did inherit the logo, who was nicknamed "Moe" as in "Mow 'Em Down".
I was a teen in the 80s. Saw all the films and TV shows with the Tomcat, including The Final Countdown, Top Gun, and (amazingly enough) Supercarrier. Also Revenge although that was 1990.
Can't find anything with photos or video, but with Supercarrier I recall the series pilot started off with some unrealistic stuff, like pilots relaxing on the deck on lounge chairs and talking about their planes. I thought the Hornet pilot called his plane a "Ferarri". But it was really weird too as the Hornet pilot lost a plane (don't remember how) while a Tomcat pilot got grounded for medical reasons that he was hiding. Didn't make much sense, but they had the Hornet pilot flying a Tomcat as the replacement. I was under the impression that before doing something like that he would need to go back to train on a new aircraft. They were talking about him not having a plane and a squadron not having a pilot for a plane. But you've said that pilots aren't really assigned their own plane. I doubt there's a specific reason why losing a plane would mean the pilot doesn't have an aircraft to fly.
It's called Steel Beach/Beer Day, every 45/50 days on station, it's a big picnic on the flight deck for the crew, on the USS Ranger they had big BBQ pits and they would cook up hamburgers, hot dogs and steaks. They would fill jet engine shipping containers with ice and cold beer and sodas, hence the lounge chairs and wading pools. we had a band that played some kicking jams.
foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com
Steel Beach- When US Navy Ships Throw Giant Beach Picnic Parties
As almost half the country watches their thermometers drop well below freezing this week, we can all take a look at how the Navy gets some warm rays without having any land in sight. 'Steel Beach,' as these events are called, evolved from your great grandfather's swim-calls. Since then they have...
foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com
