"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
They were one hell of a plane.

Many times at sea I've seen them just above the deck like two balls of
fire on a stick.
My ship often sailed alone behind the fleet, we had a fast attack sub
escort at times, but you rarely saw them. It was always something to
see when the Tomcats would come check up on us

Had two scare the living **** out of me once in the Gulf...they made a
practice attack on me from behind and about blew out the wheelhouse
windows...No **** I almost had a heat attack as they passed on each
side at wheelhouse level. I had no clue they were in the area. You can
not imagine the BOOM!

Well maybe you can..check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXK1M...elated&search=

Today the Navy retired them..No more on our ships.

Tom Cruise will be crushed! Maybe he can buy a surplus one for his
collection.

Super Hornets are in ...

Joe

I saw them fly out of Calverton when they were being developed. I saw them
dive on our FF in the Med in the mid 70's. Seen them up real close too.
Great performance plane, great design effort considering the limited
computational power back then.