August 1981 opened with a massive show of American force in the Mediterranean Sea, just north of Libya. Two of America’s super-carriers, the USS Forrestal and the class’ namesake, USS Nimitz, had entered into what Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had illegally declared his nation’s territorial waters.
America’s carriers were there to oppose that declaration, and for days, fighters from both countries danced in an airborne extension of diplomatic tensions until two U.S. fighters entered into a deadly dogfight.
“The left side of the lead Libyan aircraft lit up with a big flame as the missile motor ignited,” recounted Lieutenant Larry “Music” Muczynski, one of the two F-14 pilots. That missile banked up, missing both planes and giving the American fighters all the impetus they needed to see what the Navy’s newest air superiority fighter could do.
