The Naval Air Station Miramar honor guard, equipped with M-14 .308 caliber rifles prepares to fire a gun salute for LT. CDR. J. Stacy Bates and LT. Graham Alden Higgins outside AIRMAN Memorial Chapel near San Diego. Bates and Higgins, attached to Fighter Squadron Two One Three (VF-213), the Blacklions, died when the F-14 Tomcat aircraft they were flying crashed near Nashville, Tennessee while returning from a cross-country flight on January 29, 1996