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

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 navys elite Fighter Weapons School. As a Topgun instructor Bio was responsible for teaching the navys and Marine Corpss 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.