F-14 Crossing the Line of Death Capt Grant Begley USN (ret) 

Phenomenal interview. Grant is a great story teller. F-14 pilots have some of the best stories from the cold war era. It is great to see overall F-14 pilots now coming out and telling the real declassified stories especially about F-14 dog fighting with the MIG-25P proving how significant F-14s role was during the cold war era. His passion for history and the F-14 really comes through and I agree that F-14 has a 4-0 combat record over 32 years because enemy threat did not want to engage with the F-14. A true testament to the engineering brilliance of this fighter.

I'm always fascinated hearing stories such as this, and appreciate your sharing it with us, Captain Begley! Thanks for course to the museum for hosting these historical talks.

I just knew I knew you. I served with you in VF-33 as enlisted man working the F-14 radar weapons system. AQ2 then AQ1 Doug MacTavish. I remember this shootdown well. We were the guys that tweaked your weapon systems. Sure you were ok with the results. Great talk. Glad I got to see it.

The Grumman F-14 Swing Wing Beast what a beautiful bird!

Recounting history is so important. Thank you.

I was like glued to the monitor.... great man!

Thank you for sharing your experience as a Tomcat pilot.

Awesome Lecture ,enjoyed could not stop listening,

Absolutely support and appreciate this man and all who served and are serving in the US military

Love this channel, thanks so much,a real warrior

I love this channel. Thank you so much ♥️

Thanks for Uploading.

Thank you for your service

Capt Begley made an accidental slip of the tongue when he said “Iran” instead of “Libya”, was he looking into the future?, I.E that current tensions between the USA and Iran have escalated, with a brief exchange of hardware in the last few days. Given that Capt Begley is unable to see into the future, that slip of the tongue is either a huge coincidence or a progression of the decline in relations between the Western World and African and Middle Eastern Nations, personally I think it the later. Thanks for sharing this interesting and informative lecture, massive thumbs up 👍.

amazing talk.

Thats a good man right there :)

Very very nice presentation, love this channel.

Anytime Baby!

Got a glimpse of Lybia while on the deck of the USS Harlan County summer 1973.

Fascinating lecture; I learned much I never knew about the conflict with Libya. I have one issue regarding the record for ratio of support to combat aircraft; I suspect that the British operation Black Buck during the Falklands conflict may have a higher ratio. In order to get a single Vulcan bomber over Port Stanley from Ascension, 17 Victor tankers were used on the outbound leg and more on the return leg. There was also at least one Nimrod reconnaissance or command and control aircraft involved.

Great talk! Regards

I did the following year cruise 87-88 onboard uss coral sea cv-43, off the coast of Libya was the first place we went ,but unfortunately momar got his butt spanked in 86 and stayed in his dog house

Lots of inaccuracies in this presentation, particularly around El Dorado Canyon and the Air Force component of the raid. Some examples: they were F-111Fs, not FB-111s; the tankers were mostly KC-10s, not KC-135s and this significant because some of the F-111 crews had not refuelled from these before; the F-111 that was lost was almost certainly shot down and didn't simply fly into the sea (there is strong anecdotal and scientific evidence to support this); and, finally, the body of Paul Lorence (the WSO) was never recovered by Libya.

Interesting lecture, good history about Libya . What was an awesome nice country, poor but not stupid. To add on that history, Mohamar Gaddafi did wish and said that he wanted a coin for Africa , so the Africa continent could develop an independence at the world marked. Him and Libya having Oil, it would make them rich, more powerful. See here the reality and why all the weapon action was the organised on both sides. The USA and also the NATO ( uk) did defend their marked, Neglected was the massive trade potential for most southern European countries , unwanted immigration would never have occurred. A reason why France said no. Now we still picking up the bits and splinters of the bombing of Gaddafi plan, Apparently there was no wish for a smart rich rouge North African country.

I thought it was Mig 23s that was involved in the 86 sidria incident

How comes September, 1980, My captain, Hernandez, sounded "general Quarters" and took CV-67, across the Line of death, Gulf of Sidra, & sent 2- F-14's up?? Was It a "DREAM"??

USS IOWA was BB-61. BB-60 was USS ALABAMA. USS IOWA is on display not too far from the Western Museum of Flight in Port Los Angeles. Visiting both museums would make an excellent day trip for any family. BB-60 is also on display, but a bit further away, in Mobile, Alabama.

Great story F-14 is the best looking US fighter from that era maybe in history. Im curious why no retaliation against east Germany if it had been concluded that they too were involved in the bombing.

41:26 they still have our guy? What!?!?!?

18:45 The 300 launch site is quite and over statement.It is simply not true. The missile rails are not equal with SAM sites / batteries. One S-75 / SA-2E battery has 6 missile launchers 1 missile on each One S-125M / SA-3 has 4 missile launchers. 2 or 4 missile on each depending on the type. One S-200/S-5 site has at least two batteries, each with 6 launchers. Libya acquired the following SAMs systems. S-75M Volhkov / SA-2E 1975-12 1977-2 1978-8 1979-4 1982-6 1984-3 1985-4 In total 37 batteries S-125M Perchora / SA-3 1974-6 1975-3 1976-3 1977-1 1978-2 1979-8 1980-4 1981-7, 1983-3 1984-3, 1985-4 In total 44 batteries. S-200 Vega / SA-5B 1985-2 sites /4 batteries 1989-2 sites /4 batteries The target channel density of the Libyan air defense around Tripoli and other valuable areas was comparable to Budapest in Hungary. It was nothing special or extraordinary comparing to air defense of NSWP countries. Here you can find more info about SAMs. www.mediafire.com/folder/ibpuhagkr7a8w/ENG_-_HT_Osszefoglalo Formidable air force? Nope. Especially if we compare with US forces. Even in 1989 their most advanced fighter was MiG-23, but as I can remember not even ML. It was even more weaker export variant. The two downed Su-22s were not even fighters they were strike planes. It was the dumbest thing to send them against F-14s... MiG-25 is a fast airplane but only above 12 km. It is not a real opponent of the F-14s. On the altitude of typical air combat even a MiG-21 could outlass. Its high speed in fighter vs fighter combat is meaningless. Libyan AF did not flew at night this way was the OED at night. The quality of the F-14s and other assets of the Navy it would seem as X-Wing figthers and Star Destroyers...

HE went to the DANGER ZONE....TWIN TAILS = WIN TALES !

The Tomcats were from VF-32 in the 86 engagement

If I was to guess, I'd say the Soviets got to Khaddafi when he was in the UK. It would have been so much easier for Libya to be friends with the US. But the Soviets always make their puppets take the hard road.

Oh ya f111

No dog fighters