The Starfighter Photo Album
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The "Root Beer" F-4J, circa 1973. "Root Beer" was the VF-33 callsign before STARFIGHTER. |
| The Tarsiers of the 1980-81 IO Cruise under the leadership of Fred "Bear" Vogt. We had a whole nine days in port for this seven month cruise. At least five of those days were in Perth! |  |
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Here are the Tarsiers in their first full Tomcat cruise in 1983. They are led by Donny "Guinea" Sogga and Roger "Burner" Burnett. |
| Here's "Burner" Best and "Herb" Tranchant launching off a Sparrow off the shores of Diego Garcia during the '80-'81 IO cruise. |  |
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VF-33 Phantom in the Ferris-Heatly camouflage paint scheme in May 1980. The paint job was applied by the Tarsier Corrosion Crew using water-based temper paint for 1980 "Fighter Derby." After the engagement, the squadron held an aircraft washing party to clean off all the paint. Oh by the Way, the Starfighters won the Phantom division for that year's Derby. |
| A Starfighter Tomcat on Cat 4. This came from the cover of the VF-33 disestablishment program. |  |
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Before the Mighty Phantom, there was the Crusader. VF-33 flew this trusty steed off of USS Enterprise during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962. |
| A flight of three VF-33 Furies approach the Oceana Break. |  |
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Some of the early VF-33 pilots standing in front of their Tiger jets. Note the wooden flight deck! |
| This Starfighter Tomcat does a Touch and Go, while lighting up the afterburners of its TF-30 engines. |  |
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Starfighter 210, manned by LT "Jonboy" Snyder and LTJG "Ras" Arony fire a Sidewinder missile during the last cruise of the "Starfighter Phantom." |
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These pictures represent the future of VF-33. At this time, OPNAV has no plans to resurrect the Tarsiers/Starfighters as F-14 and F/A-18C squadrons transition to the F/A-18E/F. However, the Joint Strike Fighter is fully funded and will begin service with the Navy in the 2012-2013 time frame. These squadrons represent the best hope for our sons and grandsons (all right, our daughters and granddaughters, too) to be part of the best Strike Fighter squadron in Naval Aviation. The image to the left is the Boeing model; the one on the right is from Lockheed Martin. |
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