Just a little scare, folks. Nothing to get all excited about. I was actually off-line, out in the real world when the Capitol Hill evacuation went down. A couple of pilots found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Fighter planes shot some “warning flares” at them, and the pilots were jacked up and taken into custody. After they landed, of course. That’ll ruin your whole day.
Looking at that fighter jet took me way back in time. Around nineteen hundred and eighty-six, I believe it was, I saw a fantastically exciting movie that I eventually watched over and over again. A brash young actor, a little too cocky for my taste, became a big star pretending to fly jets for the Navy. “Top Gun” is one of the best movies of all time, and that distinction has nothing to do with the acting or those corny “love” songs. The fighter jets were the stars.
Tom Cruise’s character, Everyman Pete Maverick, earned the respect of his superiors and peers, and got the top prize and the girl. Just the thought of him flying one of those big million dollar machines made Cruise instantly more attractive. And taller. And appealing to men, too. I heard that applications to the U.S. Naval Academy shot up.
I was a mere freshmen in college when I first saw the movie. Every other man paled in comparison to Maverick, which was quite a sight to see since I attended a black college. 
I fantasized that I was a female fighter pilot, and — don’t laugh — my plane was the “Truebird.” My call sign was something feminine, but I can’t remember it now. [Update: I think Truebird was my call sign. What was the name of my jet? More importantly, why am I thinking about this?] My “baby” brother, always the comedian, used to say my call sign was “Fishhead.” Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.
Yes, “Top Gun” is a movie that stays with you a long, long time, one of the defining moments in cinema and, if I may be so bold, our lives. Thank you for listening.
This is an “un-serious” post. Carry on.
Update II: Former federal prosecutor John Loftus: “There should have been a shoot-to-kill order immediately…”
Loftus is a regular guest on the John Batchelor Show. If you don’t listen to this show, you should give it a try. It’s not bad.
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After the last few posts, I think you’re due for a non-serious foray.
“Warning Flares?”
Speaking of fighter intercepters… now is a great time to plug the Joint Service Open House soon to take place at Andrews Air Force Base: JSOH
Not an avid movie goer, “Top Gun” was one of the few movies I was fortunate to see in the theater. Absolutely loved the noise, loved the soundtrack, loved the actors. Now, if we watch it at home, its one of those movies that we have to watch with the surround sound turned on.
Love your blog, and, yes, you’re entitled to an
“un-serious” post whenever you feel like it, and I think your topic about which to be “un-serious” was excellent.
Get ready to go back to the movies, La Shawn. They’re readying a re-release for the film’s 20th anniversary next year.
I posted on it awhile back.
Hey…eveybody needs to get “unserious” now and then. I’m finding myself more and more that way, of late.
Ah, Top Gun. There is one scene in the bar(?)(been a while since I watched it) where Tom Cruise saunters toward the camera with that smirk. Anyway, that scene he looked just like my off-and-on boyfriend at the time (I was in 11th grade when I first saw it). The boyfriend was taller though; almost as tall as me.
What memories…
20th anniversary???
Has it been 20 years? Oh my G…
At the Camp Parks AF enlistment center in 1953 I was told I had the highest classification score and the worst vision of any application for flight training. Damn. I would have been good.
Sorry LaShawn, but I was at the time an Air Traffic Controller (Don’t worry, I’ve long since recovered from my government employment). Being intimately familiar with the Airspace involved and pretty familiar with the relevant F.A.Rs, it just took too many blatant liberties with reality. I understand Top Gun’s current environment at Fallon is a lot more forgiving, but doing it in San Diego would cause all kinds of Official Inquiry on every level from the city on up – pilots causing this sort of trouble on a lark would be in for much more than a tongue lashing. Not to mention the people who live in Mira Mesa and surrounding areas would form a spontaneous lynch mob – despite the fact that they signed a notice saying they realize the area is home to a military airbase when they bought in the area.
Me, I’d be interested to see what happens if BRAC hits what is now MCAS Miramar just to watch the political fallout with the airport replacement issue.
pajamazon
Warning flares, they are like real flares, or more like a missile. They streak past your cockpit, and make you say, “What the hell was that?” After several warning flares pass your plane the fighter jets come along side of your plane and and the fighter pilots motion you to pull off to the shoulder.
Interesting Top Gun anecdote: You know how Maverick sings “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” to Charlie in the bar, and all the other pilots join in? My father (City Manager for a city in San Diego North County, not too far from Miramar) met the man who was the inspiration for that scene, who did exactly that to a woman in a bar while he was in the Navy…and he later married the woman. (Unfortunately, my father never told me the man’s name.)
I still watch Top Gun any time I run across it on TV. So does my wife, who dated a couple of Navy men at one time, and was once married to a guy who moved her to Pensacola to try and become a Navy pilot, but washed out of the program.
DoubleU
Thank you.
yeehaw! Jester’s dead!
I was a senior in HS when this movie came out – and shortly thereafter every guy in my class was sporting a short, military-style ‘do and wearing leather jackets and t-shirts.
Oh, yeah – and everybody wanted a motorcycle.
Good times. Thanks for a trip down memory lane, LB!
Never ever do a fly by of the tower and jesters dead so says firebird but im a little quiet about this and did you notice you never saw the enemie pilots face just the black faceplate and the red star
I was always a little disturbed when Tom Cruise told Val Kilmer “You can ride my tail anytime, Iceman.”
Ahhh, John Batchelor.
Whenever I listen to that show, I have the distinct feeling that he’s a 1940s WWII correspondant brought from the past and given a modern day talk show. Not sure why.
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