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"Black Lions" Reach Halfway Point of Deployment

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS051214-18
Release Date: 12/14/2005 10:55:00 PM

From USS Theodore Roosevelt Public Affairs

ABOARD USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71) (NNS) -- The “Black Lions” of Fighter Squadron (VF) 213 reached the halfway point of their current deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Maritime Security Operations in December.

The Black Lions deployed Sept. 1 with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 aboard the Nimitz-class carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) as a component of CVW 8.

Weather has been just one of the challenges the squadron has faced so far during the deployment. With temperatures hovering in the upper 90s most days, Black Lion maintainers have kept the Tomcats flying day-in and day-out.

"This last Tomcat cruise is only possible because of the gallons of blood, sweat and tears put into these airplanes by our maintainers,” said Lt. Cmdr. Craig Snyder, squadron maintenance officer. “They routinely put up eight or nine airplanes a day despite the challenges of limited parts support for this 35-year-old war-horse. We are one team out here.”

The Black Lions have flown during several periods of increased activity in Iraq, to include the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum and Operation Steel Curtain.

The recent increase in insurgent activity surrounding the Dec. 15 elections is also seeing an increase in Tomcat hours in the air.

The squadron has already flown more than 640 sorties - 281 of them for Operation Iraqi Freedom - and flown more than 2,200 hours, 1,730 of which were combat hours. At this rate, VF-213 is outpacing all previous air wing squadrons in terms of number of both OIF sorties and combat hours flown.

Lt. Scott Koch said it is an honor to be a part of the last Tomcat deployment.

“It’s awesome to hear that the ground controllers are still extremely pleased with our flexibility and broad capabilities, he said.”

The focus of the OIF missions have primarily been in support of coalition troops in direct contact with insurgents, convoy escorts and patrolling routes in search of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and supporting raids. The Black Lions have dropped more than 5,000 pounds of ordnance and have engaged insurgents on several occasions with precision bombs or strafing runs.

Squadron Commanding Officer Cmdr. Dan Cave believes that the contributions of every member of the squadron have been critical to their successes. “The daily sacrifice each person makes is a true testament to their patriotism. They are all American heroes,” he said.