• F-14 Tomcat
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The F-14 Tomcat during Operation Enduring Freedom

At the forefront of the Global War on Terror from the very start, the venerable F-14 Tomcat led the first manned air strikes during Operation Enduring Freedom on Afghanistan in October 2001. Flying from aircraft carriers cruising in the Northern Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan, naval aviators flew their Grumman fighter-bombers on six- to eight-hour missions in support of Special Forces and Northern Alliance fighters engaging the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

As told by Tony Holmes in his book F-14 Tomcat Units of Operation Enduring Freedom, Fighter Squadron 102 (VF-102) “Diamondbacks” played a key role in the defence of Tarin Kowt on the morning of Nov. 17, 2001, when Taleban forces from nearby Kandahar threatened to overrun the capital of Uruzgan province. Hours earlier, Pashtun leader, and future Afghan president, Hamid Karzai had sent word to his supporters in Tarin Kowt to start a revolt, and once this was underway, he and his band of fighters moved in. Eleven members of SOF A-Team 574 had also accompanied Karzai into the town.

By dawn on the 17th, an armoured convoy of Taleban tanks, APCs and trucks was only a matter of miles from Tarin Kowt, so SOF combat controllers urgently called in air strikes. The first aircraft to respond were Hornets and Tomcats from CVW-1’s VMFA-251 and VF-102, respectively. Flying the lead F-14B (BuNo 163225) in the Diamondbacks section was the unit’s maintenance officer and his RIO. Over the next two hours, they provided more than 30 FAC(A) controls for Hornets and Tomcats dropping precision-guided munitions and Mk 83 airburst bombs (the latter exclusively from F-14Bs).

Weapon of last resort

Despite the employment of overwhelming air power, the Taleban force continued to home in on Tarin Kowt. During a lull in the action, when more CVW-1 strike aircraft were still minutes away from the target, the enemy attempted to take advantage of this situation by pressing on towards their objective in an assortment of vehicles, including a tank. Still overhead Tarin Kowt, the crew of BuNo 163225, and their wingman, had by now used all their LGBs, and only had their 20 mm cannon left to repel this attack.

‘The cannon was our weapon of last resort, as we had run out of ordnance and there was no one available to relieve us on station’, the maintenance officer explained. ‘We didn’t want to strafe, but we had no choice, as the nearest jet with bombs was ten minutes away.

Forward quarter attack

‘We had spoken about strafing within the squadron during our work-ups, and agreed that the gun would only be used as a weapon of last resort in a danger close situation. With the tank clearly on the move, we went for a classical forward quarter attack. My wingman strafed first, and his gun jammed after he had fired just a single burst. We then came in from the same direction and made two passes, and although I am uncertain as to whether we hit the tank or not, it stopped and at least one crewman got out. A third pass was made on a truck that was also on the move, and it too was stopped in its tracks.’

Thanks to the naval aviators’ persistence overhead the target area, Tarin Kowt was never recaptured by the Taleban. For their efforts on this day, VF-102’s maintenance officer and his RIO were each awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

F-14 Tomcat Units of Operation Enduring Freedom is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.

Photo credit: U.S. Navy