Operational History
F9F-8s were withdrawn from front-line service in 1958-59, replaced by Grumman F11F Tigers and Vought F8U Crusaders. Reserves used them until the mid-1960s, but none of the single-seat versions saw Vietnam War service.
The only version of the Cougar to see combat was the TF-9J trainer (until 1962, F9F-8T). Four Cougars of H&MS-13 were used in the airborne command role, directing airstrikes against enemy positions in South Vietnam during 1966 and 1967. The TF-9J had a long service with US Navy, but the Cougar evolution (with J52 engine) was defeated when US Navy selected TA-4F instead. The last was phased out when VT-4 was re-equipped on February 1974. A F9F-8T, BuNo 14276, is displayed at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola.
Read more about this topic: Grumman F-9 Cougar
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)