What a stirring photo:
A F/A-18F Super Hornet from the “Jolly Rogers” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 103 buzzes the new Flight II Burke-class destroyer USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119) in the Mediterranean Sea, March 27, 2023.
U.S. Navy photo 230327-N-CS075-1209 by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Christopher Stachyra
The Jolly Rogers are currently part of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7 assigned to Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 10 and the George H.W. Bush CSG.
Here we see a breathtaking image of a U.S. Navy McDonnell F-4N Phantom II (BuNo 150415) of Fighter Squadron VF-84 “Jolly Rogers” in flight over Sicily’s Mt. Etna, sometime in 1975.
U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.7269.024
VF-84 was long-assigned to Carrier Air Wing 6 (CVW-6) aboard the Midway-class aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB/CVA/CV-42) and the above was taken during a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea from 3 January to 16 July 1975.
All of the above is a memory as the carrier “Swanky Franky” decommissioned 30 September 1977 and was scrapped and the Navy soon phased out Phantoms just after that (although one preserved in Pensacola flew from FDR’s sistership). As for VF-84, they went on to switch to F-14s (which they used in the epic sci-fi mashup The Final Countdown to scratch a pair of Japanese zeroes) before they disbanded 1 October 1995.
Mount Etna, of course, is still around and is just as active as ever.
Super Hornet catapult shot on the Truman. Just click and drag your mouse along the screen for a full 360-degree view.
Get inside a F/A-18 Super Hornet as it launches off the deck of Norfolk-based USS Harry S. Truman! Big thanks to the crew from the Oceana-based Strike Fighter Squadron 103, the ‘Jolly Rogers’ for this incredible video.
Who doesn’t love a nice F14?
