“USS RANGER / VF1 DEPLOYMENT ,1986.
Established on 14th of October 1972 at NAS Miramar, at the same time as VF-2, Fighter Squadron ONE received it’s first F-14As on 1st July 1973. The squadron made the first Tomcat cruise on USS Enterprise (CVN-65) with CVW-14 from September 1974. The end of this cruise saw the Tomcat’s conflict debut, as VF-1 and VF-2 flew air patrols over Saigon in April 1975 to cover the final evacuation of US personnel. VF-1 deployed aboard USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) with CVW-14 from 17 Sep 1974 to 20 May 1975. CVW-14 included the following squadrons VF-1 (F-14A), VF-2 (F-14A), VA-27 (A-7E), VA-97 (A-7E), VA-196 (A-6A “ KA-6D), VAQ-137 (EA-6B), HS-2 (SH-3D), VAW-113 (E-2B), RVAH-12 (RA-5C), VQ-l Det 65 (EA-3B).
VF-1 was then assigned to CVW-2, entailing a move of carrier to the USS Ranger (CV-61) in September 1980. The squadron flew several successful cruises then shifted to USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) for a single cruise in 1984. In 1984 VF-1 achieved the impressive total of 22,000 hours of flying without accident. By 1986 VF-1 had returned to USS Ranger and was still with the carrier when she participated in Desert Storm in 1991. A plane from the squadron scored the F-14’s only air to air kill of the war when NE103 (BuNo.162603) shot down an Iraqi Mil Mi-8 Hip using an AIM-9 Sidewinder.
With the decommissioning of USS Ranger in 1993 the squadron was left without a carrier assignment and so operated out of NAS Miramar. The Navy’s decision to reduce the number of F-14 squadrons per carrier from two to one, VF-1 was disestablished on the 1st October 1993”
Credit Tod Ratliff - Edited by
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