C. J. "Heater" Heatley III
An Interview with a F-14 Pilot, TOPGUN Instructor & Photojournalist
VF- 1 Wolfpack F-14 Tomcat
As long as “Heater” can remember, he wanted to be a Navy fighter pilot. His passion to fly combat aircraft was influenced by books featuring photographs of WWI & II and Korean War aircraft. Discovering his father’s balsa wood and fabric, rubber-band-powered, flying models stored in the cellar of his grandmother’s house heightened his interest even more. Heater’s other love was sports. While boxing and football gave way in his 40’s, baseball – which gave him his nickname – did not. “Heater" has participated in organized baseball for the past 66 years and still competes in National and International tournaments to this day. He has 12 MSBL World Series Championship rings, several MVP rings and a DCMSBL Hall of Fame ring to his credit. Baseball teammates called him “Heater” for his fastball and four years as an undefeated pitcher in Pennsylvania’s American Legion baseball; moving up to Legion after throwing a no-hitter in his first game in the “Babe Ruth league.”
The name stuck and became his callsign for his 28-year Navy career and beyond. Interestingly, his heroes were “Aces,” both in air combat and on the baseball diamond. Heater earned an NROTC scholarship at the University of Missouri where he boxed, played football, baseball, table tennis and met his future wife, Kay. Coincidently, on a Midshipmen Summer cruise he was stationed at Beeville, TX and got a familiarization flight in the F-9F Cougar. On the next “Middie” Cruise, Heater flew in a VF-14 F-4J Phantom off of the USS Kennedy on a “buddy bomb" mission with an A-6 Intruder. After that cat and trap, inflight fueling and dropping bombs while flying wing on the A-6, Heater was absolutely positive that Navy fighter jets were his calling. He picked up his private pilot’s license before graduating from MIZZOU with a Bachelor of Journalism degree and a Navy commission.
Navy Flight School - Pensacola (Florida) to Beeville (Texas)
After completing Primary Training in the T-34B in Pensacola, FL, Heater had a blast flying jets in Beeville, TX, including the T-2 Buckeye in Basic Training and the TA-4J Skyhawk in Advanced Training. As if Navy jet training wasn’t enough while at Beeville, Heater also raced motocross in the 250cc & open class division every Sunday, all over the state of Texas, and married his college sweetheart between inter-base football playoff games.
Navy Fighter Jets
Earning his gold wings in 1973, Heater luckily fulfilled one of his dreams when he was assigned to fighters at NAS Oceana. “Lucky” because he had no Plan B. “It was always Navy fighters or bust,” for Heater. The VF-74 Be-Devilers became his first fleet squadron where he flew F-4J Phantoms off USS Forrestal and USS Nimitz and was sent to TOPGUN as a student in 1975. The Be-Devilers had top-notch Officers and Enlisted personnel and won the Battle E, the Safety S and the Joe Clifton Award as the Navy’s Best Fighter Squadron.
TOPGUN, Germany, and Flying Russian MiGs
Heater’s next set of orders were back to TOPGUN as an instructor where he flew the A-4, F-5, T-38, F-4E/F, MiG-17 and MiG-21. This included teaching the TOPGUN syllabus in Germany for 4 weeks, flying 2-3 times a day in the front seat of German F-4Fs and Netherlands NF-5Bs. Back home, the exposure of US fighter crews to MiGs was so crucial that the 4477th TEF was established in 1979 so that USAF, USN and USMC fighter crews could gain invaluable experience dogfighting against actual MiGs. Heater became “Bandit 8” in the first cadre of 10 Red Eagle pilots with the 4477th. That meant transferring to Nellis AFB and operating out of classified bases to the North from 1979 to 1981 while concurrently flying out of Nellis with the 64th and 65th Aggressor Squadrons plus the TOPGUN gunnery detachments in NAF El Centro, CA.
Deploying in the Navy’s F-14 Tomcat
Transitioning to the F-14 Tomcat with VF-124 Gunfighters, Heater loved flying the big “Cat.” He also liked how powerful it looked and how versatile it was. He was ordered to VF-1 Wolfpack for his department head tour which would include two WestPac deployments aboard the USS Ranger and USS Kitty Hawk. VF-1 was a stellar squadron winning the Battle E, the Safety S and the Joe Clifton Award. It was with the “Wolfies” in 1982 that Heater took the now iconic photo of his RIO and three wingmen over the South China Sea. Called “Tomcats on the Prowl,” a year later it inspired Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer to describe it as “Star Wars on Earth” and make the movie “Top Gun!”
VF-1 “Tomcats on the Prowl” (aka, "Star Wars on Earth") that inspired the movie producers to make TOP GUN
From the "bar scene" in TOP GUN. F-14 Tomcats in tight formation enter the break
Desert Shield and Operation Southern Watch
A full year out of the cockpit would follow to earn Master's Degrees at both the Naval War College and Salve Regina University in 1988. Heater then returned to NAS Miramar and the F-14 Tomcat. With orders to the VF-21 Freelancers as XO/CO, long deployments on the USS Constellation and USS Independence were in store, including replacing the USS Midway in Japan. That Carrier Air Wing flew the first missions of Desert Shield and helped plan Desert Thunder which ultimately became Operation Desert Storm. The Freelancers were a talented bunch: they were awarded the Safety S, were runners-up for the Battle E, and won the Fighter Derby as well as the Boola Boola Trophy. Finishing out 20 years in the cockpit with 6400+ hours and 1064 traps, Heater thought that would be it for flying Navy fighters because his post-Command orders were to COMCRUDESGRU ONE as the Battle Group Air Operations Officer; generally not a flying billet. USS Ranger was at the heart of this Battle Group and the Air Wing's F-14 squadrons were the VF-1 Wolfpack and the VF-2 Bounty Hunters. The mission was to return to the Persian Gulf and patrol over Iraq for Operation Southern Watch. The Admiral, a Surface Warfare Officer, directed Heater to stay day and night qualified in the Tomcat, which was a gift for Heater who was now on his 7th cruise flying bonus sorties as O-6 Navy Captain. Flying TARPS missions over Iraq with VF-2 was especially rewarding.
Tomcat Post-Trap
A Supersonic Thumping
In 1992, War Lord atrocities and mass starvation in Somalia pulled the Ranger Battle Group out of the Gulf to head South and support the Amphibious Group planning to land in Mogadishu. Once the Marines were finally established ashore, thoughts turned to going home and the next Liberty Port in Perth, Australia. Heater’s last flight as a Naval Aviator would also be the Admiral’s last flight. The routine part of the mission had ended and the last cycle of aircraft headed back to the Ranger for recovery. Out of the blue, the airborne fighters were asked by an unknown “Black" C-130 flying over Somalia if anyone had enough fuel to support a mission at the airfield in Kismayo. After getting a thumbs up from the Admiral in the back seat of the Tomcat, Heater volunteered. The mission was to provide cover for three “Black" C-130’s who were pinned down by combatants in a truck with a mounted machine gun and could not take-off. Guns and missiles were not authorized, so Heater improvised over UHF and set up for an ultra-low altitude, supersonic pass over the “technical” truck at the far end of the runway to coincide with the three American C-130 aircraft lifting off. The surprise 800 knot "airshow” and sonic boom neutralized the threat, allowing all three C-130s to safely depart. With mission accomplished, the Special Ops crews relayed their appreciation, never realizing the Battle Group Commander himself was in that Tomcat.
Sh*t Hot Break, A Trap and On the Way Back Home
All the other aircraft on the cycle had already trapped aboard Ranger. Heater found himself 30 miles out with a "ready deck” — the perfect opportunity for a "Sierra Hotel" Break. "Admiral, you up for 6.5 G’s?” he asked on hot mic. The Admiral rogered up, so Heater brought that big ‘ol Tomcat in low and fast and with a completely empty pattern, broke at the round down, barely decelerating to gear and flaps speed by the 90. The LSO graded the fast-all-the-way-to-the-ramp pass as OK3 “”SHB. That’s as good as it gets. Now the ship was on its way to Perth and then home, so no more flying for the Admiral or Heater after that. Outside of a MiG shoot-down or actual combat, Heater said it was a pretty good way to have your very last hop in the U.S. Navy and the last hour of his 2500 hours in the TOMCAT.
Tomcat Patch Collection, “ANYTIME, BABY…!”
We asked Heater: “What surprised you about the F-14 Tomcat?”
I had over 3,000+ hours in all kinds of fighters before I ever flew the Tomcat, but I did fly against it hundreds of times. Everyone said the F-14 was easy to fly, but hard to fly well.
Flying with automatically variable sweep wings was new for me and I loved all of the advantages that provided; it easily flew supersonic down low with full loadout of missiles and external fuel tanks.
Initially what surprised me was the difference in “feel” and fighting capabilities between a fully-loaded Tomcat and one with less than half a bag of gas. Then I was amazed at how accurate the gun was in both air-to-air and air-to-ground modes. VF-21 was one of the first "Bombcat" squadrons, and we were all surprised at how accurate a “manual” bomber it was, even before the LANTIRN Pod. Also, the Tomcat was a beast, so we could bring all of our missiles and bombs back to the boat and trap after a “no-drop mission.” Other aircraft had to safely jettison their bombs in order to land on the carrier.
Later, with the new larger F-14B/D rear cockpit display and the LANTIRN Targeting System (LTS) the Tomcat was arguably the best precision bomber in the world – even "buddy lasing" for F-18 LGBs – while still being the best at Fleet Air Defense for intercepting Russian/Chinese bombers & cruise missiles, as well as performing superbly in the tactical reconnaissance role with its TARPS Pod.
The F-14 was a true multi-role fighter plane that did not compromise its outstanding dogfighting capabilities in BFM or ACM, particularly with the more powerful, lighter and more efficient GE engines. The F-14D was a huge improvement for an already great machine. By upgrading the already powerful AWG-9 radar with a digital computer, the APG-71 brought all aspect radar performance with leading edge Link-16 and an IRST capability to the fight. The “D” did everything incredibly well.
The F-14 Tomcat truly defined the essence of crew coordination in a tactical platform. The complexity of the machine, its missions, and its state-of-the-art systems demanded peak performance from both the pilot and the Radar Intercept Officer (RIO). A well-honed crew, acutely aware of each other’s responsibilities and capabilities, made for an extremely powerful integration of warrior and machine that had no peer.
The Tomcat was truly an extraordinary aircraft.
Please check out our video, The Making of "Star Wars on Earth" The Painting: