VF-213/VF-31 Patch

[mules83]

Here is the patch for the last tomcat cruise.

 

[A4sForever]

Great patches ... thanks. VF-213 was a great squadron. Are these patches in the squadrons now or are they just a commericial creation??? Kind of "borrowed" from the VF-41 Black Aces' last cruise .... i.e., "Last time .... "

Another melancholy milestone passes on the journey of Naval Aviation ....

 

[mules83]

Great patches ... thanks. VF-213 was a great squadron. Are these patches in the squadrons now or are they just a commericial creation???

I found them on the internet site called M.A.T.S. so I dont know where they are used.

http://www.anft.net/f-14/

 

[Gatordev]

I got to fly w/ -213 on my first class cruise. From what the JO pilots were saying, it was a great place to be, which was a huge change from what it was. After 3 or 4 mishaps (Tennessee, Hultgreen, etc), the squadron's leadership was cleared out. When I was there (post-mishaps), morale was high and they were well respected. Good fun.

 

[Blutonski816]

cool patches...

A4s, I've seen a lot of the old VF- squadrons have used "Last Time, Baby" or some other variation for their last Tocmat Cruise patch....

 

[A4sForever]

I got to fly w/ -213 on my first class cruise. From what the JO pilots were saying, it was a great place to be, which was a huge change from what it was. ....

Qualification: great squadron VF-213 was when they were driving F-4's ... I cannot comment on the rest.

One of their JO pilots was John Nathman ... as in former COMNAVAIRPAC John Nathman??? Good guy, that John-boy. Quiet, solid stick, good boat pilot.

Another pilot was a cousin of Johnny Cash --- he looked a little like Johhny and he ALWAYS wore cowboy boots to fly. When I would drift on down to the VF-213 Ready Room to debrief the passes and give grades --- he would turn around and answer up in his very best deep Johnny Cash voice "Hello, I'm *** Cash". The only thing missing was the guitar. He kept it in his stateroom. He did a great imitation of his more famous cousin. A great guy and a solid pilot, also.

Here he is giving me his take on the landing grade I just gave him .... what a joker and sport he was .... !!! :icon_mi_1

 

[rare21]

A4s have you seen Cash's flight jacket for sale on ebay recently? i dont know if its still out there (since the guy wanted like 500 bucks for it) for sale but i remember seeing it quite a bit.

 

[TheBubba]

Sad to see 'em go... The best moment I had growing up was getting to sit in the cockpit of an F-14 in Rosy Roads...

 

[Pags]

I got to fly w/ -213 on my first class cruise. From what the JO pilots were saying, it was a great place to be, which was a huge change from what it was. After 3 or 4 mishaps (Tennessee, Hultgreen, etc), the squadron's leadership was cleared out. When I was there (post-mishaps), morale was high and they were well respected. Good fun.

Their Blacklion Bash was quite the shindig this year.

 

[Schnugg]

I was around them during their "dark era" and their rep then was pretty poor.

Lost an F-14 in the break...nasty mid-air (lost one tomcat), lost a tomcat doing a Guns-d, lost one with Hultgreen behind the boat, lost one in Tennessee...CO lost it in the hangar bay....

Lots of people at the time thought it was a bad decision to decom VF-114 and keep VF-213.

Glad to see they did turn out okay.

r/
G

 

[Gatordev]

Then you may have known Lucky (NFO). He came to my NROTC unit right after I got commissioned. He said he checked in the day of the TN mishap, and after that, everything got better, so he picked up the name.

 

[A4sForever]

A4s have you seen Cash's flight jacket for sale on ebay recently? i dont know if its still out there (since the guy wanted like 500 bucks for it) for sale but i remember seeing it quite a bit.

No, I'm clueless .... was "Roy" selling it or someone else??? I Google'd and Ebay'ed it to no avail ... Hmmmmmmmmm ..... if "his" was worth $500 bucks .... I wonder what MINE would be worth .... ??? My eyes glaze over at the prospect .... Two bits??? Four bits ??? Six bits ??? A DOLLAR ??!! :icon_mi_1

I did EBay-see, however, an "authentic" G1 flight jacket "worn by an F-14 pilot" ... now THAT's something everyone wants to have .... it's going @ $9.99 with no takers. :icon_mi_1

 

[TurnandBurn55]

VF-213 was a great squadron. Are these patches in the squadrons now or are they just a commericial creation???

Still *is* a great squadron

Haven't seen either of those patches worn by anyone yet, but I'll keep my eyes peeled...

 

[Blutonski816]

Still *is* a great squadron

Haven't seen either of those patches worn by anyone yet, but I'll keep my eyes peeled...

Well, you're probably going to have to wait until CVW-8 gets back...

 

[Blutonski816]

It's an old joke that my MCJROTC instructor used to pull out when he wanted to poke fun at my aviation aspirations. His father was a B-29 pilot in the post-war era, but at 5'6" he couldn't make the height reqirements and served his career (aside form infantry in Vietnam) leading Security forces (FAST Companies, etc.). Still, he's very knowledgable about Aviation and doesn't hesitate to comment about such things.
It's his little reminder to me that NATOPS was written for a reason....

One Damned Good Marine, Overall who just wanted to make a leader out of me...