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In the morning of Aug. 19, 1981, a message was received through the static and white noise of radio communications by two naval aviators piloting F-14 Tomcats from Strike Fighter Squadron (VF) 41, assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), over the Gulf of Sidra.
"102, 107, you are cleared to defend yourself."
A response from one of the F-14s, call sign: Fast Eagle 102, was transmitted back within seconds.
"And this is 102, 107. Two enemy kills."
By the time the ship had advised them to fight back, the two F-14 aviators had already taken down the enemy aircraft. The pair had standing orders to retaliate if enemy forces decided to attack first.
Fast Eagle 102, piloted by Cmdr. Henry "Hank" Kleeman, along with Radar Intercept Officer (RIO), Lt. Dave Venlet; and Fast Eagle 107, piloted by Lt. Larry "Music" Muczynski with RIO Lt. Jim Anderson, had just shot down two Libyan SU-22s – one of which had fired upon them first, but missed.
The dogfight that barely lasted a minute was the first time F-14s had scored a kill in service of the U.S., and marked the first Navy air combat confrontation since the Vietnam War. The event is now known as the Gulf of Sidra incident of 1981.
In 1973, almost a decade before the historic dogfight over the Gulf of Sidra, Libya's then-ruler Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi, had decided to declare the waters and airspace within almost the entire gulf as sovereign territory. He expected to accomplish this by drawing a line extending from a point near Benghazi, Libya to another at Misrata across the headlands of the gulf, calling it the “Line of Death" and threatening military response if the line was crossed.
The claim to the waters and airspace within the Gulf of Sidra was a violation of the international agreement stating that 12 nautical miles was the territorial limit from a country's shore – a standard that had been established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The U.S. government did not recognize al-Qaddafi’s unilateral claim as legitimate, and on Aug. 12 and 14, 1981, warned that it would hold a naval exercise in the gulf as part of freedom of navigation (FON) operations regularly held by U.S. forces.
On Aug. 18, only one day before the incident, Nimitz and USS Forrestal (CVA 59) began the exercise. It was not long before tensions in the area began to mount.
According to a news story published the day after the incident by Michael Getler of the Washington Post, Pentagon officials said that on the first day of the exercise, approximately 40 flights were made by Libyan jets toward the U.S. forces involved in the operation. The Libyan aircraft were intercepted by Navy fighters and turned back without any issues.
That all changed the next day, when Fast Eagle 102 and 107 spotted the two SU-22s while on patrol. Not long after, one of the Libyan fighters fired a Soviet-made Atoll air-to-air missile at Fast Eagle 102.
"Two fitters have shot at my leader," radio traffic from Fast Eagle 107 announced.
"This is 102. We've been fired on," confirmed his wingman immediately after.
The missile launched by the Libyan fighter missed its target. In response, Fast Eagle 102 fired its own missile, a heat-seeking Sidewinder AIM9L that made contact with one of the SU-22s, shooting it out of the sky.
"It was a clean target," Fast Eagle 102 transmitted over radio shortly after the kill.
One Libyan fighter remained, and Fast Eagle 107 was able to get in position for a shot.
"Want me to shoot my guy down?" asked Fast Eagle 107, waiting for orders.
"That's affirm. Shoot him. Shoot him down!" 102 responded.
The Sidewinder from Fast Eagle 107 found its target, taking the second SU-22 down.
"Fox two kill from ‘Music,’" announced Fast Eagle 107. "Fox two kill."
The short-lived skirmish between U.S. and Libyan forces over the Gulf of Sidra ended as quickly as it began, and both F-14s returned to Nimitz.
Fast Eagle 102 and Fast Eagle 107 have since become part of aviation history. Some even say that the dogfight depicted in the movie “Top Gun” is inspired by the real aerial battle over the Gulf of Sidra.
Fast Eagle 107 was destroyed in an accident in 1994. Today, only Fast Eagle 102 survives.
The Tomcat credited with the first kill by an F-14 was unveiled in 2016 after extensive restoration efforts, and put on display at the Midland Army Air Field Museum in Midland, Texas. Hundreds of aviation buffs are said to have attended the event, joined by Vice Adm. (Ret) Dave Venlet, the RIO of the historic fighter jet during the incident.
Fast Eagle 102 remains there to this day as an icon of naval aviation and a symbol of a legacy that will live on for years to come.
| Date Taken: | 05.22.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 12.28.2022 17:45 |
| Story ID: | 436006 |
| Location: | BREMERTON, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 691 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, "Two Enemy Kills”: The Fast Eagles That Made History Over the Gulf of Sidra, by PO1 Eduardo T Otero, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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