On March 2, 2002, an F-14A was lost at sea following attempted recovery onboard the USS Stennis operating off the coast of Afghanistan. The mishap was as a result of catastrophic failure of the arresting gear hookshank (Stinger). A Team of NAVAIR experts worked together to identify the cause of failure as a complex sequence of events involving compressive yielding, development of residual tensile stress, preferential hydrogen embrittlement and cracking, and improper maintenance processing. This analysis and the development of a NDI techniques lead to alleviation of the imposed +8 knot wind over deck flight restrictions on F-14 aircraft. The interaction and sequence of events that caused this failure, as well as why it was undetected prior to the occurrence of the mishap, will have significant engineering implications throughout Naval Aviation well into the future. The F-14 Stinger failure analysis also included the design and development of a unique and novel approach to studying the relationship between residual stress and hydrogen. A new method of producing standardized test specimens with reproducible levels of residual stress was combined with incremental step-loading testing technology to model the residual stress-hydrogen embrittlement interaction. This new technique has the potential for additional development and application in hydrogen embrittlement and stress corrosion testing as well as failure analysis. The Team also worked many months in the development of improved and unique processing procedures for F-14 Stingers. Concerns over potential failure from other failure mechanisms lead to the development and implementation of cryogenic proof loading and new approaches to preventing hidden corrosion of the internal surfaces of the Stingers. An overview of the failure analysis of the F-14 Stinger, with emphasis on the aspects having potential significance to future failure analyses, will be presented. The unique and significant processing changes to mitigate failure will also be highlighted.