1/72 Witty Wings US NAVY F14A Tomcat VF-41 "Black Aces" AJ107
The present VF-41 was created at NAS Oceana on the 1st of September 1950, becoming the fourth US Navy squadron to bear that designation. VF 41 received F14 Tomcat in mid april 1976 in order to replace all F4 fleet in their squadron. 19th of August, 1981, saw a very different day for the Black Aces. Flying a Combat Air Patrol over the Gulf of Sidra, two VF-41 aircraft, callsigns "Fast Eagle 102" and "Fast Eagle 107" were intercepted then fired upon by two Libyan Su-22 Fitters. As with the VF-32 incident the F-14's were able to manoeuvre into firing positions and then downed both Fitters. The incident marked the first time the F-14 had been used in air to air combat, the first Navy air combat since the end of the Vietnamese War and the worlds' first engagement between variable geometry (swing wing) fighters.
1981 was also the first year in which the Black Aces won the COMNAVAIRLANT Battle "E", signifying them as the most efficient squadron in the Atlantic fleet. VF-41 were also to collect this award in 1985 and 1989. Regular cruises to the Mediterranean followed, the 1982 cruise saw the squadron operate as part of the multi-national peace keeping force off the Lebanese coast, while the 1985 cruise saw the battle group spend 68 days off the Lebanese coast, this time in response to the hijacking of a TWA airliner. If the hijacking had not been solved by other means it is quite conceivable that VF-41 (and VF-84) would have been employed in much the same way as VF-74 and VF-103 were during the Achille Lauro incident, to intercept the hijackers and force them down to a place where they could be tried
credit : VF 41 History
