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Tomcat Squardon Earns Arleigh Burke Award
Story Number: NNS060629-05
Release Date: 6/29/2006 2:00:00 PM


By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Matthew D. Leistikow, Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- The swan song of the F-14 Tomcat proved to be one of its best when the Fighter Squadron (VF) 31 “Tomcatters” from Naval Air Station Oceana earned the Arleigh Burke Award for
excellence.





2005, June 15.

The Arleigh Burke Trophy is awarded to the ship or squadron with the most improved battle efficiency.

“To win this award in the culmination of the Tomcat’s career is icing on a very large cake,” said Cmdr. James Howe, VF-31’s commanding officer.

“What it tells me is that we are the most ready to be deployed and used for what our mission is,” said Lt. Tom Ober, maintenance material control officer for VF-31. “They need to call somebody, they call ‘Felix’ (the Tomcatters’ mascot Felix the Cat) from VF-31, and we’ll be ready to rock and roll.”

“This squadron has been very busy over the last few years,” said Howe. “Our operations tempo has been second to none.”

Howe attributes the quality of his squadron to his Sailors.

“I have the best Sailors in the Navy,” said Howe. “The kids in my maintenance department are the absolute finest Americans. It’s my pleasure to know them, and the work they do is nothing short of amazing.”

Part of that work includes a 100 percent on-target rate, meaning each piece of ordnance VF-31 dropped hit right on target.

“Nobody else in our air wing had that,” said Ober.

The squadron also maintained a 99.6 percent emergency sortie completion rate.

“Ninety-nine point six percent of the missions we were scheduled to fly, we flew,” said Ober, who has spent 19 years of his Navy career working with Tomcats. “I’ve made many, many deployments with Tomcats and I’ve never had a sortie completion rate like that - never."

“The greatest accomplishment we had on the cruise was bringing everybody home,” added Ober. “We brought every aircraft and every person home.”

Despite the high operational tempo, Howe said VF-31 was able to overcome maintenance issues, work efficiently and keep the Tomcats flying.

“We’ve taken an aircraft that is more than 30 years old, in its swan song and final deployment, and we’ve nearly reduced the maintenance man-hour-per-flight-hour by half,” said Howe. “Historically, it takes nearly 40 maintenance man-hours per flight for the F-14, and for this deployment we got it under 20.”

Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class (AW) James A. Dickerson, VF-31’s workcenter 13A leading petty officer, said an incredible amount of time was put in to maintain those standards.

“On the boat, we put in anywhere between 12 and 18 hours depending on what’s going on,” Dickerson said, “Back here we might spend anywhere from nine to 12 hours.”

With all the work VF-31’s crew puts in, Howe said the recognition is well deserved.

“I’m humbled, I’m honored and I’m privileged to be associated with every single one of them,” said Ober about the VF-31 team. “The aircraft is the asset that we use to perform the mission. The people who fix the airplanes are so important to that because without the airplanes we can’t perform the mission.”

Despite the Tomcat’s age, Dickerson said the aircraft is going out at the top of its game.

“It’s been through its test of time and it’s time for it to go because of the maintenance aspect,” said Dickerson. “But as an on-target jet it’s next to none. Nobody can touch it.”

VF-31 earned several awards on its way to earning the Arleigh Burke Trophy, including the U.S. Fleet Forces Command Golden Anchor for Retention Excellence and the Commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet Battle “E” award.

“We’ve won many of those awards two years in a row,” said Howe.

Dickerson feels that VF-31’s achievements helped add a positive final chapter to a storied aircraft.

“Everyone’s seen Top Gun; everybody loves a Tomcat,” said Dickerson