I think that I was part of the Navy flight crew that helped with the 1986 movie “Top Gun” and that I might have been flying the F-14 in many of the scenes, probably in 1985, or so my theory goes. That theory was reinforced by the “memory,“ which as with all of my “memories” are symbolic, of a friend writing in my senior class year book that I would be the “Top Guy” in the Navy, which is only one letter off, but also similar in concept, to “Top Gun.” When that movie released, though, I think I was lost somewhere on the African continent having been shot down in an A-6 aircraft. There are several clues in my symbolic “memory” that I use as a guide to create that theory. I think some elements of the movie reflect what happened to me and the primary one was that I was the bombardier/navigator in that A-6 aircraft when we were shot down, where I was normally a pilot of an F-14 fighter. I think that is why the character “Goose” was killed in the movie, to reflect that they thought I was dead. In my “memory,” which is all symbolic and not true memories, I had a girlfriend named Diane that I took to see that movie and she lived in a town with a name that suggests the Arlington National Cemetery. As for the name “Diane,” this following excerpt may explain why I had a girlfriend with that name at a time when everyone thought I was dead. Also, the college she was going to when we started dating was formed in 1859 and recently I realized its nickname is ominously similar to name of a national security police force of another country I read about where that police force was disbanded after it was discovered that high level leaders were communists. I think this may point to my predicament as a POW in 1986 being the result of communist infiltration of our government.
A-6 Intruder
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The initial version of the Intruder was built around the complex and advanced DIANE (Digital Integrated Attack/Navigation Equipment), intended to provide a high degree of bombing accuracy even at night and in poor weather. DIANE consisted of multiple radar systems: the Norden AN/APQ-92 search radar and a separate AN/APQ-112 for tracking, AN/APN-141 radar altimeter, and AN/APN-153 Doppler to provide position updates to the AN/ASN-31 inertial navigation system. An air-data computer and ballistics computer integrated the radar information for the bombardier/navigator (BN) in the right-hand seat. TACAN and ADF were also provided for navigational use. When it worked, DIANE was perhaps the most capable nav/attack system of its era, giving the Intruder the ability to fly and fight in even very poor conditions (particularly important over Vietnam and Thailand during the Vietnam War). It suffered numerous teething problems, though, and it was several years before its reliability was established.
Memorable Quotes from Top Gun (1986)
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Viper: I flew with your old man. VF-51, the Oriskany. You're a lot like he was. Only better... and worse. He was a natural heroic son of a bitch that one.
Maverick: So he DID do it right.
Viper: Yeah, he did it right... Is that why you fly the way you do? Trying to prove something? Yeah your old man did it right. What I'm about to tell you is classified. It could end my career. We were in the worst dogfight I ever dreamed of. There were bogeys like fireflies all over the sky. His F-4 was hit, and he was wounded, but he could've made it back. He stayed in it, saved three planes before he bought it.
Maverick: How come I never heard that before?
Viper: Well that's not something the State Department tells dependents when the battle occurred over the wrong line on some map.
Maverick: So you were there?
Viper: I was there.
USS Oriskany (CV/CVA-34) was an Essex-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy
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Oriskany recommissioned at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard, 7 March 1959
Of the period beginning 8/16/48, when VF-51 formed, and the date 7/20/69, the day Apollo 11 landed, my birth day of 3/3/59 is only 59 days from the mid-point.
8/16/48 to 3/3/59 equals 3851 days.
3/3/59 to 7/20/69 equals 3792 days.
3851 minus 3792 equals 59 days.
VF-51 was the designation of a fighter squadron of the United States Navy known as the "Screaming Eagles".
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Until its' disestablishment, VF-51 was the oldest fighter squadron in continuous service with the Pacific Fleet. VF-51’s roots is traced back to 1927 when the Screaming Eagles insignia could be seen with the VF-3S Striking Eagles which flew the Curtis F6C-4. On February 1, 1943 they were re-designated to VF-1 and on July 15 the same year they became VF-5, then changed to VF- 5A on November 15, 1946 and finally became VF-51 on the August 16, 1948 and retained that designation until the squadron’s disestablishment in March 1955. In 1947, the Screaming Eagles were the first Navy squadron to enter the jet age, flying the North American FJ-1 Fury. VF-51 became the first squadron to take jets into combat and scoring the first air-to-air kills in the Korean war.
