Big cat strikes. A U.S. Navy VF-154 Squadron's F-14 Tomcat carrier-based fighter jet catapulted from the using the Kitty Hawk (CV-63) aircraft carrier at about the same time

Big cat strikes.

A U.S. Navy VF-154 Squadron's F-14 Tomcat carrier-based fighter jet catapulted from the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) aircraft carrier in about 2001.

The unit was the most important "Tomcat" squadron deployed by the U.S. Navy in the western Pacific, replaced by the F-14A in 1983, deployed with the 5th Carrier Fighter Wing and the Aircraft Carrier "Independence" (CV-62) at Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan in 1991, and was only withdrawn and ready to be reloaded in 2003.

In 2005, the squadron's Tomcats retired and began replacing the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and the squadron name was changed to the current VFA-154 Squadron, which means "attack aircraft".