VF-2 “Bounty Hunters” Grumman F-14D Tomcat Operation Iraqi Freedom

The VF-2 Bounty Hunters flew some of the most intense missions in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Flying off the USS Constellation on its very last cruise, VF-2 Tomcats were the FIRST non-stealth fighter aircraft to fly into Saddam’s Baghdad Super MEZ, or Missile Engagement Zone, releasing 2000 pound GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs on targets inside Baghdad’s city limits. Flying through barrages of anti-aircraft gun fire and Surface to Air Missiles or SAMs, the Bounty Hunter Tomcats destroyed several critical targets with those precision guided weapons. This VF-2 F-14D was the Carrier Air Wing Commander’s aircraft, Captain Mark Fox, and the Deputy Air Wing Commander Captain Craig Geron.

Flying one of the first large daylight strike packages to the Iraqi H-3 Complex in the western deserts of Iraq during Desert Storm on 17 January 1991, then Lieutenant Mark Fox destroyed an Iraqi Air Force MiG-21 Fishbed while assigned to VFA-81 Sunliners off the USS Saratoga. He and his wingman were carrying four Mk 84 2000 pound bombs and were alerted to the approaching Fishbeds by their controlling E-2 Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning aircraft.