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ENLARGE
The year was 1969.
The Vietnam War was going full bore, and U.S. involvement had reached such a crescendo that more than 540,000 United States military personnel were serving in that war-torn nation.
But despite this country's escalating involvement in the growing war, President Richard M. Nixon and Pentagon chiefs were not satisfied with the "kill ratio" of Navy pilots when compared with the ratio they achieved during World War II and the Korean War.
The Vietnam War ratio, Navy brass said, was low because aviators had become too dependent on technology and deficient in the basics of air-to-air combat.
As a result, a new and innovative Navy campus named the Fighter Weapons School was commissioned that year at San Diego's Miramar Naval Air Station to rectify the problem.
Soon nicknamed the "Top Gun" school, the program began training Navy pilots for brutally realistic dogfights in an effort to increase their efficiency and raise the critical kill-ratio.
The Vietnam War was going full bore, and U.S. involvement had reached such a crescendo that more than 540,000 United States military personnel were serving in that war-torn nation.
But despite this country's escalating involvement in the growing war, President Richard M. Nixon and Pentagon chiefs were not satisfied with the "kill ratio" of Navy pilots when compared with the ratio they achieved during World War II and the Korean War.
The Vietnam War ratio, Navy brass said, was low because aviators had become too dependent on technology and deficient in the basics of air-to-air combat.
As a result, a new and innovative Navy campus named the Fighter Weapons School was commissioned that year at San Diego's Miramar Naval Air Station to rectify the problem.
Soon nicknamed the "Top Gun" school, the program began training Navy pilots for brutally realistic dogfights in an effort to increase their efficiency and raise the critical kill-ratio.
These efforts paid off handsomely. Soon, the previous 2:1 ratio was elevated to an astonishing 12:1. Top Gun's training had paid dividends.
The school received national and international praise and recognition. The motion picture "Top Gun," released in 1986, 17 years after the Top Gun school's founding, raised the school's aura and mystique to even greater heights.
In 1996, following a 1993 nationwide military base closure and realignment commission decision to switch the Miramar air station from a Navy to a Marine Corps facility, Top Gun moved to NAS Fallon.
Already in place at NAS Fallon at that time was the Naval Strike Warfare Center. With the arrival here of Top Gun, the Strike Center was renamed the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center when it combined Top Gun with the Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School (nicknamed "Top Dome").
The move to Fallon in 1996 by Top Gun made headlines all over the nation.
Newspaper, magazine, radio and television reporters and photographers flocked to both San Diego and Fallon to cover the historic move.
The Los Angeles Times, for example, in covering the May 29, 1996 changeover from San Diego to Fallon, headlined its page one story, "An Era Ends in San Diego as Navy's Top Guns Take Off."
The school received national and international praise and recognition. The motion picture "Top Gun," released in 1986, 17 years after the Top Gun school's founding, raised the school's aura and mystique to even greater heights.
In 1996, following a 1993 nationwide military base closure and realignment commission decision to switch the Miramar air station from a Navy to a Marine Corps facility, Top Gun moved to NAS Fallon.
Already in place at NAS Fallon at that time was the Naval Strike Warfare Center. With the arrival here of Top Gun, the Strike Center was renamed the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center when it combined Top Gun with the Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School (nicknamed "Top Dome").
The move to Fallon in 1996 by Top Gun made headlines all over the nation.
Newspaper, magazine, radio and television reporters and photographers flocked to both San Diego and Fallon to cover the historic move.
The Los Angeles Times, for example, in covering the May 29, 1996 changeover from San Diego to Fallon, headlined its page one story, "An Era Ends in San Diego as Navy's Top Guns Take Off."
"Four F-l4 Tomcats and 12 F/A-l8 Hornets punched into the overcast morning sky from the runway at Miramar Naval Air Station as the Navy's famed Top Gun school completed its move from Miramar to Fallon, Nevada.
"It has been just over 10 years since the movie Top Gun starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis did for naval fighter pilots what Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff did for astronauts. Overnight, the Top Gun school became the most widely known and glamorous of all military commands," the Times said.
The San Diego Union Tribune said in a story from Fallon, "Emigrants en route to California passed through here in the 1840s and Pony Express riders followed suit in the 1860s.
"Hotshot fighter jocks moving to NAS Fallon from NAS Miramar who will trade the off-duty amenities of Southern California for a high-desert outpost in Western Nevada may take some time getting used to their move," said the newspaper.
The Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle-Standard wrote about Top Gun's move to Fallon:
"In what looked like a scene from the movie of the same name, Top Gun pilots and students arrived at NAS Fallon and were greeted by family members, base officials and members of the media.
"Their arrival was one of the last steps in the process of making Fallon the training school's new home. The majority of Top Gun's personnel have already arrived at the base here with the remaining members due within the next week," the newspaper said.
"It has been just over 10 years since the movie Top Gun starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis did for naval fighter pilots what Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff did for astronauts. Overnight, the Top Gun school became the most widely known and glamorous of all military commands," the Times said.
The San Diego Union Tribune said in a story from Fallon, "Emigrants en route to California passed through here in the 1840s and Pony Express riders followed suit in the 1860s.
"Hotshot fighter jocks moving to NAS Fallon from NAS Miramar who will trade the off-duty amenities of Southern California for a high-desert outpost in Western Nevada may take some time getting used to their move," said the newspaper.
The Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle-Standard wrote about Top Gun's move to Fallon:
"In what looked like a scene from the movie of the same name, Top Gun pilots and students arrived at NAS Fallon and were greeted by family members, base officials and members of the media.
"Their arrival was one of the last steps in the process of making Fallon the training school's new home. The majority of Top Gun's personnel have already arrived at the base here with the remaining members due within the next week," the newspaper said.
Today, 35 years after the founding of Top Gun, eight years after its move to NAS Fallon, and 60 years after the commissioning of NAS Fallon, Top Gun, now an integral part of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, continues to be the Navy's prime tactical training program for its pilots as well as one of the world's most noted centers for aviation excellence.
Although the Top Gun name is still used to signify the historical significance of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) training and curriculum, the Top Gun legacy and mission have been subsumed into NSAWC which emphasizes the importance of air-to-ground as well as air-to-air training.
Providing training to aircrews, squadrons and airwings throughout the Navy, NSAWC's permanent staff of 300 military and 500 civilian contractor personnel host an average of five visiting airwings a year.
Each airwing consists of approximately 65 aircraft and from 1,800 to 2,000 personnel, according to base spokesman Zip Upham.
Flying in the skies high over Fallon in F/A-18 Hornets, F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-5 Tigers as well as a variety of other airplanes and helicopters, students at the school engage in a multi-faceted curriculum that includes not only aerial combat skills but airborne battle management, Combat Search and Rescue, Close Air Support and Naval Air Intelligence.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of Top Gun. Despite its inclusion in the overall curriculum and concept of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center here, Top Gun retains its distinctive image, history and heritage.
Top Gun has become an integral part of military aviation's vocabulary. It will, no doubt, remain there for years to come.
Although the Top Gun name is still used to signify the historical significance of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) training and curriculum, the Top Gun legacy and mission have been subsumed into NSAWC which emphasizes the importance of air-to-ground as well as air-to-air training.
Providing training to aircrews, squadrons and airwings throughout the Navy, NSAWC's permanent staff of 300 military and 500 civilian contractor personnel host an average of five visiting airwings a year.
Each airwing consists of approximately 65 aircraft and from 1,800 to 2,000 personnel, according to base spokesman Zip Upham.
Flying in the skies high over Fallon in F/A-18 Hornets, F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-5 Tigers as well as a variety of other airplanes and helicopters, students at the school engage in a multi-faceted curriculum that includes not only aerial combat skills but airborne battle management, Combat Search and Rescue, Close Air Support and Naval Air Intelligence.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of Top Gun. Despite its inclusion in the overall curriculum and concept of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center here, Top Gun retains its distinctive image, history and heritage.
Top Gun has become an integral part of military aviation's vocabulary. It will, no doubt, remain there for years to come.
