Capt. Brian Kesselring, a former TOPGUN instructor himself and now flight leader and commanding officer of the Blue Angels, had the honor of taking TOPGUN1, retired Navy Captain Dan Pedersen, up for a ride
Led by former Navy Captain Dan Pedersen, in 60 days, nine individuals founded an educational institution in 1969, that is now firmly ingrained in the history of American naval aviation. The Navy Fighter Weapons School, or TOPGUN, is the current name of such institution. Although the school’s existence was only known to a select few elite fighter pilots in 1969, by the time the 1986 film Top Gun debuted, nobody would be able to forget it.
A young Pedersen joined the US Navy in 1955, and according to the US Navy Blue Angels Facebook Page, he started his Naval Aviation adventure while stationed at NAS Los Alamitos, California, by riding in the backseat of a naval aircraft. In September 2021, he flew over NAS Los Alamitos once more, but this time he was riding in the backseat of a Blue Angels aircraft.
“During our air show in Huntington Beach, where we had the privilege to fly Capt. Pedersen, the first commanding officer for TOPGUN.”
The distinction of taking TOPGUN1 for a ride belonged to Capt. Brian Kesselring, a former TOPGUN instructor who is currently a flight leader and commanding officer of the Blue Angels. On that particular day, Cmdr. Mike Patterson, the TOPGUN commanding officer at the time, joined them while piloting a fleet F/A-18 Super Hornet.
The Blue Angels felt that honoring the original TOPGUN was appropriate in light of the recent release of Top Gun: Maverick.“While many are fascinated by the actors in the films, for me, the true celebrities are people like Capt. Pedersen, the ones who paved the way and used their abilities to make us a more capable military,” said Capt. Brian Kesselring. “Flying this legendary naval aviator was a true honor and a terrific way to thank him for his contributions to our country.”
The Navy’s Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor Course – better known as TOPGUN – has a reputation for producing the best fighter pilots in the world.
Although TOPGUN’s fame now precedes it, its beginnings were far more modest. The school was first established in a trailer in the parking lot of what was then Naval Air Station Miramar in California, as reported by Katie Lange of DOD News in the article “It Started in a Parking Lot: TOPGUN’s History Revealed.” This was done in order to improve the training of Navy fighter pilots during Vietnam.
In Vietnam, the Navy was suffering intolerable combat casualties in spite of having a technological advantage. As a result, the service ordered an inquiry, which Navy Capt. Frank Ault was given the command to oversee. The Ault Report, which was produced as a result, identified numerous performance issues and their underlying causes, including the requirement for sophisticated training on fighter tactics. The outcome was the Navy Fighter Weapons School, which was founded in 1969 in Miramar.
The school, known by the moniker TOPGUN, was founded with the goal of providing aircrew with the highest level of professionalism in all facets of aerial combat training. When it first started, its students received four weeks of training aboard F-4 Phantom II aircraft to improve their skills in dogfighting, or one-on-one aerial combat.
Photo by U.S. Navy