Topgun Days: Dogfighting, Cheating Death, and Hollywood Glory as one of America's Best Fighter Jocks - Hardcover

Baranek, Dave

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1616080051 ISBN 13: 9781616080051

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, 2010

Synopsis

Dave Baranek (callsign "Bio") was one of 451 young men to receive his Wings of Gold in 1980 as a naval flight officer. Four years later, seasoned by intense training and deployments in the tense confrontations of the cold war, he became the only one of that initial group to rise to become an instructor at the navy's elite Fighter Weapons School. As a Topgun instructor, Bio was responsible for teaching the navy's and Marine Corps's best fighter pilots how to be even better. He schooled them in the classroom and then went head-to-head with them in the skies.

Then, in August 1985, Bio was assigned to combine his day-to-day flight duties with participation in a Pentagon-blessed project to film action footage for a major Hollywood movie focusing on the lives, loves, heartbreaks, and triumphs of young fighter pilots: Top Gun.

Bio soon found himself riding in limousines to attend gala premieres, and being singled out by giggling teenagers and awed schoolboys who recognized the name "Topgun" on his T-shirts. The book ends with his reflections on his career as a skilled naval aviator and his enduring love of flight.

About this title

About the Author:

Dave "Bio" Baranek enjoyed a successful and satisfying twenty-year career in the United States Navy, starting with assignments to F-14 Tomcat squadrons and later assignment to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Baranek retired from the Navy in 1999 and now works as a defense contractor in the Washington, D.C. area. He lives in Burke, Virginia.

From Booklist:

The author is a retired Naval flight officer, who made several cruises aboard various carriers as the radar operator in the back seat of an F-14. One of those cruises included an ejection when the ship’s arresting gear failed to arrest the F-14 before it went overboard. Even more challenging were his two assignments to the Topgun program, the Navy’s elite fighter-training school, first as a student, then in the coveted position of an instructor. During that second assignment, he also helped with the Navy’s support and the flying sequences of the classic movie Top Gun. (See above for the correct spelling.) The author is a straightforward, even plain writer, but he also has an eye for detail, and gives those details in full measure about experiences for which there is an abiding, even devouring, curiosity among aviation buffs. They will enjoy. --Roland Green

About this edition

• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1616080051
• ISBN 13: 9781616080051
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320