Book Review: Topgun Days - Dave "Bio" Baranek

Peter Mersky

Topgun Days: Dogfighting, Cheating Death and Hollywood Glory As One of America's Best Fighter Jocks (Skyhorse Publishing, New York, $24.95, 308 pp), by Dave "Bio" Baranek.

Written with an almost youthful appreciation of the chance to experience a specialized area of U.S. Naval Aviation, the Fighter Weapons School, better known as "Topgun," this book is a refreshing memoir. Everyone associated with Naval Aviation, no matter what their individual community, knows about Topgun, its derivation from a poor showing during the Vietnam War by Navy fighter crews and its development to successfully rectify the situation. After the war, the circular shoulder patch with its stylized MiG-21 square in a gun sight reticule became a well-known badge of professional status and knowledge among fighter crews.

What makes this book rather unusual is that the author is not a pilot but a radar intercept officer, colloquially known as a RIO, or if the speaker wants to really show his age, RO. RIOs officially debuted with the introduction of the mighty McDonnell F-4 Phantom II in the early 1960s. They rode close behind the guy up front, operating the air-to-air radar and running the intercept problem, as well as offering a vitally important second set of eyes and brain to bring the mission to a successful conclusion, i.e., shooting down the MiG! (Truth be known, the airborne radar operator had his start in the very early years of World War II when the hard-pressed Royal Air Force installed the first cumbersome sets in such iconic British fighters as the Bristol Beaufighter and Bolton Paul Defiant, and certain models of the De Havilland Mosquito to fight off the night-bombing Heinkels and Dorniers of the German Luftwaffe. The Germans responded with their own stable of radar-equipped nightfighters. U.S. Marine Corps nightfighter crews made up of an officer pilot and enlisted RO carried on the tradition during the Korean War, accounting for several Communist MiGs.)

As the Navy seems to be turning back to a single-seater mindset, except for the F/A-18F WSO, the RIO career path may have, indeed, seen better days. No matter, their heritage is there for anyone to see, and most experienced pilots will confirm that without their RIO, the mission would have been much more difficult.

So, with that in mind, Commander Baranek's long-needed memoir is all the more welcome. He writes with humor and a generous share of humanity describing his early days in flight training and his first fleet squadron, getting to know the Grumman F-14 Tomcat and its mission. Eventually, his attention turns to going to Topgun. Just to be sent to the school was an honor and to graduate from the intense five-week course with its rigorous daily schedule of two to three high-power flights was an achievement.

When he graduates, the instructors tell him that he would be welcomed back as one of them, again a unique endorsement that would play in his mind in the months to follow. The first half of the book leads up to his assignment to Topgun for an instructor tour. Baranek describes how he worked into the demanding schedule of giving involved technical briefs to students, always under the watchful eyes of senior instructors. Eventually, he gets the hang of it all and establishes himself as a valuable part of the team.

Then, the meat of the book, "Topgun," the movie, brings the reader into the author's involvement with the Hollywood blockbuster that sent him into the unforgiving arena of coordinating show business demands with the Navy's equally rock-hard regimen of high-performance fighter maneuvers and training.

If you haven't seen the movie, either in the theater or in one of its innumerable reruns on television--where have you been these last 25 years?!--you really should before you read this book. But, assuming you have seen it, the last portion of the book will be illuminating, and will answer a few questions. (I still have one question about the "MiG-28" designation: hadn't anyone noticed that MiG fighters use odd numbers--MiG-15, 17, 19, 21,23, 25, 27?)

Nonetheless, the sinister black F-5s serving as "enemy MiG-28s" are perfect stand-ins. There is a two-seat "F" that Baranek flies in the back seat to participate in several scenes, including the climactic final engagement. He even mentions a visit to a model manufacturer's office in San Diego to advise on their upcoming presentation of aircraft kits with movie markings.

Then, he describes the premier and subsequent, short-lived movie star fame he and his friends enjoy as they jaunt around town in appropriately marked Topgun t-shirts.

All in all, an enjoyable read that veteran F-14 pilots and RIOs, will appreciate reliving, as well as presenting a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how Hollywood makes its big aviation pictures.

(A retired commander, Peter Mersky has written more than 15 books on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviation, as well as a landmark book on Israeli fighter aces. Since 1982, he has reviewed more than 600 books for his regular column in Naval Aviation News. He was the first civilian editor of Approach magazine. His latest book, U.S. Marine Corps Aviation 1912-Present, 4th Edition, (U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis), appeared in November 2009. )

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Copyright 2012 by Peter Mersky