Hobby Master Archive

VF-213 “Black Lions” was established in 1955 flying the F2H-3 Banshee and eventually the F-14A in September 1976 and the F-14D in 1997. In September 2005 the USS Theodore Roosevelt “The Big Stick” sailed with VF-213 and several other units to take part in “Operation Iraqi Freedom’ and “Operation Enduring Freedom”. By mid February 2006 the carrier had entered the Mediterranean on her way home. Returning home in 2006, they began the conversion to the F/A-18F Super Hornet. F-14D 164347 was produced in 1991 and sent to AMARC in 2006.