Throughout the 1980s, F-14 pilots had menaced Saddam’s air force, shooting down more than 100 of its jets. It was common for F-14 pilots to engage three or four Iraqi pilots at once, and the technologically outmatched Iraqis often fled. But even as this secret war wound down, another, quieter front had already opened: the battle to keep the Iranian F-14 in the air. Beginning in 1974, Iranian military aviators traveled to the Miramar naval base in San Diego to train with Navy instructors. Getty Images The U.S. Department of Justice displays two F-14 parts in October 2007.