photo #9383368

Everything in this photograph is gone.The Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001. The F-14 Tomcat was retired by the Navy on September 22, 2006, 20 years ago this month, with a ceremony at Oceana, Virginia, and one last flight.For 32 years the Tomcat was the most recognizable fighter jet in the world. Twin tails, wings that swept back for speed and spread wide to land on a carrier, and a starring role in Top Gun. It was built to protect aircraft carriers from Soviet bombers, and it never had to do that.It did protect New York.On the morning of September 11, the carrier USS George Washington left Norfolk and took up position off the city. For days afterward, its fighters flew patrols over Manhattan while the smoke was still rising from where the towers had been. People on the ground looked up and saw Tomcats.This photo was taken on an ordinary day, when both were still there. Nobody can take it again.The Navy's Tomcats are in museums now, or in the boneyard in Arizona.