Enterprise (CVN 65) - Naval Cruise Book

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CDR T. Payne Commanding Officer CDR T. Junek Commanding Officer LCOR Flannery LCDR WA. Hall LCDR T.|. Kilcliiw LCDR C.A. Lesher tCDR Loreiuo ICDR C.P. Wiener IT D.R. Barnes LT CanUrano LT Crawford LCDR L.C. Mason ai| h t ■i m LTBumlcr VF-213 431

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On June 22, 1955, four officers and 20 enlisted men assembled at NAS Moffett Field to hear CDR William ANDERSON read the orders commissioning Fighter Squadron 213 (VF-213). A week later the BLACK LIONS received the first of their F2-H3 BANSHEES and began a 29-year span that would include five types of fighter aircraft and 21 deployments on six different carriers. February 1964 saw VF-213 taking a quantum jump forward in fighter capability by accepting the first of their new, two-seat F-4C PHANTOMS. An 18-month training period followed during which the BLACK LIONS pioneered and standardized much of the Tactical Data System operations in use today. In November 1965, VF-213 joined Air Wing ELEVEN and began the first of six combat deployments in Southeast Asia aboard USS KITTY HAWK (CV-63). This deployment marked the first use of the PHANTOM as a conventional bomber, a role destined to make the PHANTOM the mainstay of the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Over the next seven years the BLACK LIONS flew over 11,500 combat missions, delivering over 6,000 tons of ordnance. After two peacetime deployments aboard USS KITTY HAWK (CV-63) and a NATO cruise on USS AMERICA (CV-66), the BLACK LIONS took another quantum step forward in fighter capability. VF-213 stood up as an operational TOMCAT squadron in December 1 976. After returning from the 1981 East Coast cruise aboard USS AMERICA (CV-66), the BLACK LIONS were immediately back into an intensive turnaround training period for their first deployment aboard USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65). At NAF El Centro they maintained their reign as the number one F-14 gunners, getting 413 hits on a single banner, a record for an F-14 squadron which broke their own record of 276. In April 1982 the squadron picked up an additional mission, Tactical Air Reconnaissance, and began training with the new Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS). The BLACK LIONS were the number one F-14 squadron in the 3rd annual Photo Derby and also winners of the first Recce Rally sponsored by COMFITAEWWINCPAC. In July 1982, VF-213 became the first F-14 squadron to successfully shoot four PHOENIX missiles (AIM-54) during O.R.E., along with a record number of SPARROWS (AIM-7) and SIDEWINDERS (AIM-9). The BLACK LIONs deployed aboard USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) in September 1982 for an eight-month cruise to the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. The ENTERPRISE, and her air wing, participated in Navy Battle Group Operations to the Northern Pacific Ocean for the first time in many years. During these operations, the BLACK LIONs intercepted and escorted a record number of Soviet reconnaissance aircraft that overflew the carrier task group on surveillance missions. During Indian Ocean operations the BLACK LIONS flew the longest tasked flight from a carriei for a F-14 TOMCAT when they flew a 1,755-mile TARPS mission. In June 1983 the BLACK LIONS began the turnaround training cycle once again for another WESTPAC deployment aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65). In October the BLACK LIONS conducted carrier qualifications aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65) in which VF-213 compiled 105 day and 80 night arrestments in a four-day period while fully qualifying 15 pilots. In December 1983 the BLACK LIONS once again demonstrated their TARPS expertise by winning the Recce Rally 84-2 sponsored by COMFITAEWWINCPAC. The intensive turnaround training continued in the spring of 1984 with two deployments aboard USS Enterprise in February and March that culminated in the squadron ' s successful completion of O.R.E. in early April. The Black Lions deployed aboard USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) for a seven-month Western Pacific and Indian Ocean cruise.

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ENS I.P. BradberrY ENS C.P. Mctvoy 432 VF-213