Flying With Maverick Again (Finally)

LT Pete "Maverick" Mitchell -- "I feel the need..."

LT Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and LTJG Nick "Goose" Bradshaw -- "...the need for speed!"

I finally got around to watching Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to Top Gun. I saw Top Gun back in the summer of 1986. Let's just say that me and more than one friend repeated the quote above multiple times either before or after seriously breaking the speed limit and some other traffic laws.

I wanted to be a fighter pilot and a naval aviator. I wanted to do that before I saw Top Gun. But I knew that wasn't going to happen. My vision was no longer 20/20 and I was asthmatic. I was in my school's NJROTC program. I had hoped that I might be able to finagle a medical waiver for the asthma so that I could serve in one of the military branches. My ASVAB scores were pretty good and the Navy recruiter indicated that I could pretty much get into whatever program I wanted. I indicated that I had an interest in an aviation field like aviation electronics. Unfortunately, I was informed shortly thereafter by the recruiter that he couldn't get me a waiver. And that was that.

Well, not exactly. I gave some serious thought on a couple of occasions about trying again to enlist and being less than truthful about my medical history. After all, it worked out for Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America.

Around the time of Desert Shield/Desert Storm, I got a letter from the United States Marine Corps about enlisting. Evidently they still had my information, but they appeared to be unaware of my asthma diagnosis. Perhaps the military branches were not sharing all of my information.

I had friends that had either served in the military or were serving in the military that encouraged me to take a chance. A friend serving in the Air Force assured me that I could already pass the necessary fitness test to graduate from basic training. One friend that had served in the Army said that he had seen guys with inhalers. I do recall a scene in Black Hawk Down where one of the soldiers uses an inhaler. Of course, that soldier could have been prescribed an inhaler for bronchitis or some other acute respiratory ailment. Anyway, that friend also argued that the military wasn't concerned with prosecuting people that lied to enter the military, but with people lying to get out of the military. That may be true, but the language about the consequences for making false statements is pretty intimidating.

Having been asthmatic from a young age, I realized that it likely wouldn't be too difficult to dig up my medical history even in a time before Internet usage was so widespread. And I remembered how I once had a doctor listen to my lungs during a physical to play football and he asked me if I was asthmatic. I figured that a military doctor would probably catch it during the physical.

I know that John Paul Jones, William Tecumseh Sherman, Teddy Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy had asthma. I wonder if they misled the recruiter and the military doctors to enter military service or if it was the case that it was not a disqualifying diagnosis at the time. Well, in any case, it was a disqualifying condition at the time that I tried to enlist. So I wasn't going to be serving on an aircraft carrier or anywhere else.

Top Gun: Maverick was due to be released earlier than it was released, but it was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The same pandemic that nearly took me out (assuming that my pulmonary embolism was related to my having contracted COVID-19). I am really glad that I eventually got the opportunity to watch it, even if it took me a while.

I really enjoyed the movie. I loved the action, I loved the story, and I loved the romance between Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Penelope "Penny" Benjamin, the admiral's daughter mentioned during a dressing-down by Maverick's commanding officer in Top Gun. I can see me watching Top Gun: Maverick again multiple times, even if I never watch it as many times as I have watched Top Gun. 😎