VF-154
Continued
Once again the shore period was short, on the 30th August the airwing and carrier departed once more. Training began with a VF-154 organised MISSILEX - the F-14's shooting 4 AIM-54C's and downing 4 targets. The cruise continued with FOAL EAGLE exercises in the seas around Korea. By the time the Black Knights pulled back into port during November they had spent 240 days at sea!
Preparations for deployment soon swung into action, January seeing jets deploy to Guam for SFARP training. A few weeks later they recived their first Digital Flight Control System (DFCS) equipped jets.
On the 2nd of March VF-154 sailed onboard USS Kitty Hawk for their first full WESTPAC deployment. During the four months of cruise the Black Knights took part in Tandem Thurst '99, an unexpected Persian Gulf period (due to USS Thoedore Roosevelt being called to cover events in Kosovo), plus port visits to Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. The cruise also saw a new first - two Naval Aviators reaching 1000 traps on the same day. Capt. R. McHarg, CAG of CVW-5 landed onboard in a specially painted VF-154 F-14A - modex 1000. His pilot for the historic trap was Lt. D. Baxter. Later the same day the CO of VFA-27, Cdr. K. Hutcheson, made his landing in a squadron F/A-18C. Both landing took place in the Persian Gulf, where Kitty Hawk and CVW-5 completed 5,426 sorties, including 1,356 combat hops over Southern Iraq.
VF-154's markings have tended to be low key. When their F-14's were first delivered they featured three stripes running from the lower front to the upper back of the outside surfaces of the stabilators. At first the upper and lower ones were black, with the middle orange. An image of this scheme can be seen below. As markings became even more toned down the orange coloured stripe was removed. It now seems to have been replaced by a medieval shield design, featuring a vertical sword.
