This patch this past march marked the 50th anniversary of the u. S. Navy fighter weapon program. We welcome the programs founder, dan patterson. He formed he served in combat during the vietnam war on the uss hancock and three on the uss enterprise. He retired as a captain, having accumulated 6000 flight hours and 1000 flight carrier landings with 39 different types of aircraft. For those of you who know his story from the 19 1986 movie top gun, Jerry Bruckheimer is producing a sequel in 20. His book is available for purchase and signing. Here to keep the conversation going is larry burke, curator of aviation at the museum. Please welcome dan pedersen and larry burke. Are you ready to go . Im going to take about 10 minutes and final preparation for the questions coming from you. How many of you have actually read the book . Good. That really gives me free play. Except for a couple of squadron makes meets back here to keep me honest. I will tell you how the book came about. The 50th anniversary on the third of march of this year top gun was conceived on that date 50 years ago. Tells you something about how old i am. Jim horn fisher, who is my literary agent, has four best sellers of his own. He came to me along with the famous condor, who you see in the pictures. They said we are getting close to 50 years, its time to put the legacy in writing. Somebody over there says, we started top gun and then the americans took it over. That would ruffle your feathers, which it did. We have been fighting back and forth over time. One who is drafted by the original guys, because i was a senior i ended up being the boss man during the initial phase of this. We will get to how it was done and who did it shortly. One of the benefits of writing this book was it allowed me to think back. I do a comparison with what i know today. I compare what i see. I think i did a pretty fair job based on the reaction of the book and the reviews. One of the things i was most proud of was the reviews we had gotten. I started out working two jobs going to college, like everybody in those days was doing. Four world war ii squadron. And heres the first good one. I was working for a chief name brown. He was my mentor. Mentor is a keyword youre going to hear a lot. I got his coffee whenever i wanted. He spent and a normas amount of time teaching me how to maintain those airplanes. Not down here. I do make mistakes. We were in the first jet squadron. Mentor number two. Twin cockpit front and back. He said you are learning to be a jet engine still over my shoulder every minute watching me. I went flying a few times in the backseat. The first airplane i had ever been in. I thought, boy do i love this. Over the course of a few months, he said you are really pretty good at it. I didnt land very well. I could flight pretty good. Fly it pretty good. He said, would you consider going to Flight Training if i hope to teaching me how to maintain those airplanes. Not down here. I do make mistakes. We were in the first jet squadron. Mentor number two. Twin cockpit front and back. He said you are learning to be a jet engine still over my shoulder every minute watching me. I went flying a few times in the backseat. The first airplane i had ever been in. I thought, boy do i love this. Over the course of a few months, he said you are really pretty good at it. I didnt land very well. I could flight pretty good. Fly it pretty good. He said, would you consider going to Flight Training if i hope to take the exams and prepare you. I talked to my folks and my folks said thats an honorable provision, we really support that. A long story short there. 1956 and 57, 18 months, i did really well. She set the stage, he later went on to be head of the fbi. What a great man. Then we come out in employee training. We had some amazing good grades and i ended up with roommates in north highland. The squadron was amazing when i got there. I know we were very close. We had a lot of world war ii guys who were seniors and that. Mentor number three. Howard found the japanese at the battle of midway. We were surrounded by great talent from world war ii and at first fiveyear squadron. We had 60 airplanes, four different kinds. We stay home, drink a little whiskey and take care of mama and the kids. So they did and they. Encourage us to fly. This is a key point of where you are today in america. We had all the flight time we could handle as young pilots. Thats not true today. I can talk more about it later on. Success from that day on, mentoring is a reason. I never knew what i was ultimately capable of doing. I think it was being exposed to great americans. 28 victories in world war ii. He was ready to rest a little bit. His enthusiasm carried over to five or six of the squadron. It was good. Because the abundance we had in those states, and the only way you really get good in Tactical Aviation is to fly a lot. Its combat flying. I went on from there. We will go to questions from the audience. You see a stack here, probably more than i need. I do want to back up a little bit is there anything in your background that led you to join the navy in the first place . Was it something you just kind of i got exposed, you have to remember airlines, there werent airliners. It was brandnew and exciting. Its hard to explain to people who havent been there. Combat maybe. I can across california yesterday and i had a window seat. It was one of those days where i got to look out across the country and thought, what a uniform country you live in. I do every single day of it we hope that gave you an answer. You already sort of mentioned you go from there. You absolutely love that. You go through a boot camp, basic Flight Training. Then you go on to advance. You have to realize, particularly for the ladies, there wasnt a lot of male expertise. It was something new. Its a root ticket write every day and they pay you to do it. I think i was born to do it. Regarding the panther, you started out a prop trainer and basic. The old thing as well. And then of course i went to advanced training. If, you cover the spectrum airplane. You may remember that. When i got out of the navy, i take the original 17 guys in my class seven of us were still up and kick in. Could you Say Something more about your first experiences in the panthers . Into a frontline aircraft. Airplanes were repainted. It was a totally e ticket ride. There is nothing more rent more thrilling than that. The guns are the primary weapon of choice. And they always have been. Industry sonys so many eyes on the ground. It was captured by the guy on the ground. You had no other weapon in the airplane. Cancerous dynamite. You described a couple of instances in advanced training, really reinforcing the fact that you are on your own. Would you care to tell our audience, the trip to dallas in the low level. Part was to go to dallas. And fly back down. Thats only several hundred miles, 3. 5 by car. In an airplane doing 400 miles per hour, it is a hand. There wasnt any weather. We went and we had 600 foot overpass overcast. We had four of us trying to keep track of each other. We are going back up to dallas. We are probably misaligned on the exact track coming back. All of a sudden it goes between me and my wing is a tower. That tower was 1500 feet, and we were cruising along 500 feet just below the clay. That thing went by so fast. The red really caught my eye. I said, thats a reality check. Its a dam dangerous business. A lot of things you cant plant this plan for. I dont know how many old aviators there