Let’s turn the clock back to the Spring of 1983, the place Naval Air Station Oceana located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Cold War and the Russians are the worries of the nation as President Ronald Regan and his Secretary of the Navy John Lieberman commit to a 600-ship Navy to counter the threat of the communist to our nation and the world.

At the same time, a young 18-year-old 3rd Navy petty officer having just graduated top 10 percent from both his boot camp and basic aviation maintenance training has captured the covenant set of orders to a sea going “F-14 Tomcat Fighter Squadron.”

He will experience his first day at Fleet Replacement Fighter Squadron VF-101 known as “The Grim Reapers.” He will commence what will be eight months of technical, operational and hands-on training to qualify as an F-14 Tomcat Weapons/Avionics maintenance personnel, which upon successful completion, recommendation and graduation he would become part of an elite operational sea-going F-14 Fighter Squadron. During his five years of active Naval service, this young petty officer would excel in both rank, responsibilities and ultimately into a 22-year career of continuous Naval service to his country within the Naval Air Reserve flying as a Lockheed P-3C Orion crewmember within the Anti-Submarine Warfare Community while simultaneously developing a successful airline maintenance/engineering management career and ultimately the establishment of an aviation consultancy here in Miami.

Now fast forward the clock by 23 years. The time: Thursday Sept. 28 2006; the place: a former naval air station once known as N.A.S Miami now commonly known as Opa-Locka Airport. This once young petty officer, now a few years older and wiser, eagerly stands on the flight line at the Coast Guard Air Station appearing to be awaiting for a friend someone/something special from his past life much like we all do when we wait for a love one in anticipation at an airport.

But no longer is he dressed in his dark blue coverall adorned with the proud Tomcat logo patch on his left arm sleeve, his former VF-32 “Swordsmen” squadron patch on his right chest and his 2nd Class Petty Officer Chevrons emblems sown on each collar. Instead, his uniform of the day is business casual consisting of a white shirt, black pants and a gray sport jacket and accompanied by dear friends, colleagues and the news media. Benny F. Benitez, President & CEO of the 94th AeroClaims Group and a GMAA Board of Directors member, scans the soft light gray layers of clouds for his beloved F-14 Tomcat. Suddenly, his ears draw him to the unmistakable sound of his old friend as it approaches from east.

Zooming in from the East at 450 mph! With its dual General Electric F110-GE-400 Turbofan Engines screaming and its variable sweep wings retracted at 1,000 feet above the deck is the last U.S. Navy F-14D Tomcat serial number 164342, side number 100 from Fighter Squadron VF-31 “The Tomcatters” arrives from N.A.S Oceana. Eventually, upon “De-Militarization” at the Miami Coast Guard Air Station maintenance hangars, Tomcat #164342 will be trucked and re-assembled for its new life at its final resting place here in Miami as a prized exhibit to Betty Righetti wonderful collection of historic aircraft found at the Wings Over Miami Aviation Museum locate at Tamiami Airport.

“Anytime Baby” was the motto of the F-14 Community for the last 36 years toward anyone or anything that threaten our way of life and toward the protection of ours Nation and to those unlucky Nations who felt the sharp claws and power of the Tomcat in anger and retaliation.

The Cold War F-14 Tomcat Squadrons with a crew of two consisting of a Pilot and a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) in the rear served the numerous and world wide U.S. Navy Carrier Battle Groups they were assigned to in protecting them from multiple Soviet Bombers / cruise missile airborne threats in which its was primarily designed for.

Originally equipped with the Hughes Aircraft AWG-9 and through out the years upgraded to the General Electric APG-76 Radar and with the combined lethality of the AIM-54 “Phoenix” long range air to air missile, the F-14 Tomcat was capable of tracking and shooting down six separate targets at a range of 100 miles and despite its large size, the Tomcat was a nimble and agile Fighter.

The first global conflict for the F-14 Tomcat started when Fighter Squadrons VF-1 & 2 began flying off the deck of the U.S. Navy first ever Nuclear power aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN-65) while flying protective Fighter cover “Mig Cap” against North Vietnamese Mig 21 Fighters during Operation “Frequent Wind” the evacuation of Saigon during 1975. Luckily for North Vietnamese their Migs-21’s never bothered to show up.

A glorious 36-year career of Naval service as the tip of our Nation military spear around the world ended for the F-14 Tomcat on 29th September 2006 here in Miami when VF-31 Buno# 164342 “The last Cat Standing” landed from its last flight from N.A.S Oceana into Opa-Locka Airport.

Oscar Garcia, Chairman of Interflight Consulting and President of the GMAA, while accompanied by other GMAA Board Members such as John Batchelor and Mark Henderson from Miami International Airport, as well as with Captain USN (Ret.) Dale “Snort” Snodgrass a former F-14 Pilot and Commander Carrier Battle Group Airwing (CAG) during Desert Storm unanimously agreed that all those who attend the “F-14 Fly-In” had witness the closing of a chapter in the defense of our nation.

Another fact which was brought into light by Ken Porter, president of KP-AIRCOM Aviation Consultancy who was a former Grumman employee and worked on both the F-111 “Aardvark” & Apollo Lunar L.E.M programs and a long time resident of both Long Island Bethpage / Calverton Communities where the F-14 Tomcat was manufactured and test flown is that Thursday 29th September, 2006 marked the end of the last and truly dedicated Naval Fighter aircraft from Grumman’s long history of manufacturing “Cat Fighters” for the U.S. Navy which began with the Grumman F4F Wildcat back in August 1937 thus closing a historical chapter in Naval Aviation.

As for Benny and the F-14 Tomcat, they will always have a lot in common, in as they were both “manufactured” on Long Island, New York (Bethpage & Brooklyn, they both left New York at young ages to join the Navy, served our nation, and were both attached to the first-ever East Coast F-14 Fighter Squadron “VF-32.” Despite having been deployed, traveled and lived all over the world, they both have ended up in Miami, Florida, and oddly enough to only be “14” miles apart from each other, which is the actual distance from Benny’s home to the Museum at Tamiami Airport.