TOPGUN TURNS 50
IN 1968 THE U.S. NAVY HAD A PROBLEM. ACTUALLY IT HAD SEVERAL PROBLEMS, NEARLY ALL INVOLVING THE FOUR-YEAR-OLD VIETNAM WAR.
But one of the most pressing was carrier fighter squadrons’ disappointing record against North Vietnam’s air force. Mostly flying subsonic MiG-17s, the Vietnam People’s Air Force had exacted an unexpected toll on American fighter-bomber squadrons from 1965 onward.
Enter Captain Frank Ault. Known as an uncompromising truth teller, Ault had little ambition to make admiral—something of a rarity for an Annapolis graduate—but his reputation and attitude compelled the hierarchy to pay attention. During his 1966-67 tour commanding the attack carrier Coral Sea, Ault realized that naval aviation was not living up to its historic potential. He was especially concerned about the air-to-air victory record. Depending on the numbers cited, Navy pilots and aircrews were downing barely two North Vietnamese MiGs for each F-4 Phantom or F-8 Crusader lost in air combat.
Ault resolved to do something about it. The upshot was a 480-page assessment called the “Air-to-Air Missile System Capability Review,” released in early 1968. It became famous as the Ault Report.
Among nearly 250 recommendations, one stood out. Ault’s team proposed establishing a post-graduate fighter weapons school at Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar, north of San Diego. Its mission: provide objective, real-world instruction for Pacific Fleet fighter squadrons to meet the challenge over Southeast Asia.
The Navy leadership accepted Ault’s recommendation, and the word filtered down from Washington to PacFleet to the Miramar wing commander to VF-121, the West Coast Phantom training squadron. There the job landed on the large shoulders of Lt. Cmdr. Dan Pedersen, a combat-experienced F-4 pilot leading the unit’s tactics phase training.
Pedersen, call sign “Duke” for his stature and voice similar to John Wayne’s, was
