Due to fears of a possible invasion of the Republic of China on Taiwan, VF-51 and the rest of the Valley Forge's Air Group and the Triumph moved south to keep watch before rejoining the war on 18 July.

[3] Future astronaut and first man to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, was also a Naval Aviator in VF-51 during this period.During the Vietnam War, VF-51 was the first squadron to evaluate the air-to-ground capability of the F-8 Crusader, and because of this, VF-51 was picked to fly secret interdiction missions into Laos in June 1964.

In 1976, VF-51 and the rest of Carrier Air Wing 15 was deployed on a peacetime Mediterranean cruise on USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, returning in April 1977.

The purpose of this cruise on a soon-to-be scrapped carrier was to take the first squadron of United States Marine Corps AV-8A Harriers to sea.

On 16 June 1978, VF-51 transitioned to the Block 100 version of the F-14A Tomcat and their first cruise with the F-14 was in May 1979 with Carrier Air Wing 15 aboard USS Kitty Hawk.

This cruise, originally slated to end in early December 1979, was extended by Presidential direction during the Kitty Hawk Battle Group's final port call in the Philippines in late November 1979 as a result of the seizure of the American Embassy in Iran the same month and the subsequent Iranian Hostage Crisis.

Both squadrons participated in the preparatory efforts to rescue American hostages in Iran, frequently intercepting both Iranian and Soviet aircraft in the region, but departing the Indian Ocean in February 1980 and turning responsibilities over to the USS Nimitz Battle Group and its embarked Carrier Air Wing 8 with VF-41 and VF-84 prior to execution of Operation Eagle Claw.

[5] After that cruise with the Kitty Hawk, the air wing moved to the East coast for a short period of time, flying from the newly introduced USS Carl Vinson from March to October 1983 as the ship transited via an around-the-world cruise to its new homeport of NAS Alameda, California and assignment to the Pacific Fleet.

VF-51 is credited to be the first F-14 squadron to intercept Soviet Tu-22M (Tu-26) Backfire bombers, armed MiG-23 Floggers and Su-15 Flagons using the Tomcat's TCS (Television Camera Sight).

After relieving the USS Ranger CV-61 and CVW-2 on 18 December, VF-51 and the rest of the air wing took up station off the coast of Somalia as part of Operation Restore Hope.

There may be some plausibility in the claim, as VF-51 were flying F-8s off the Oriskany during the 1965 cruise, the year mentioned in the photo shown by Maverick earlier in the film.

In the sequel Top Gun: Maverick, the character Robert "Bob" Floyd (a NFO, Topgun graduate and mission candidate) is shown with "VFA-51" insignia and helmet bag.