Discussing his book top gun an american story, Aerial Combat and how his book inspired the 1986 movie to the gun. Good evening. Im Lauren Rosenberg with smithsonian associates. Welcome to tonights program. To our members, im so glad youre here. Its your support that makes events like this possible. And if youre joining us for the first time, an equally warm welcome and open invitation to explore the wide range of programs we offer at smithsonian associates. Now is the perfect time to turn off your cell phone or anything else that might make noise during the program. Thank you for doing that. This past march marked the 50th anniversary of the u. S. Navy Fighter Weapons program. We are thrilled this evening to welcome the programs founder, dan pederson. He entered the u. S. Navy in 1953 and went on to become the senior officer in the group of nine men who formed the navys legendary Top Gun Program at naval station miramar in march 1969. He served in combat during the vietnam war with the
It was a dramatic first. The first time in American Naval history that women were assigned to the crew of a ship. On a soggy november 18, 1972, at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in california the uss sanctuary was recommissioned. The first woman admiral elaine dirk gave the commissioning address. The sanctuary is being recommissioned as a new and unusual type of ship with a new mission to assist the navy effort to improve moral and flexibility by home porting combatant ships overseas to provide medical and Resale Services to deploy dependents wherever the fleet may be assigned. In addition to this forward step the sanctuary has been selected as the ship to participate in the Pilot Program which will evaluate the utilization of women for sharp board duty. It will be home for about 80 women, half in the crew and half at the hospital. With these innovations you could see that the sanctuary is truly unique in many respects. The sanctuary is an experiment to see how well women and men can tog
Smithsonian associates. Now is the perfect time to turn off your cell phone or anything else that might make noise during the program. Thank you for doing that. This past march marked the 50th anniversary of the u. S. Navy Fighter Weapons program. We are thrilled to welcome the programs founder, dan pedersen. He entered the u. S. Navy in 1953 and went on to become the senior officer in the group of nine men who formed the navys legendary Top Gun Program at miramar in march 1969. He served in combat during the vietnam war with the flying crews on uss hancock and three on uss enterprise. He retired as a captain having accumulated 6,100 flight hours and 105 carrier landings while flying 39 types of aircraft. For those of how know pedersens story from the 1986 movie top gun youll be happy to know that jerry brook heimer is producing top gun maverick a sequel scheduled to be released in 2020. Pedersens book top gun is available for purchase and signing following this conversation. And here
Good evening. I am Lauren Rosenberg with the smithsonian associates. I would like to welcome you to this program. Its your support that makes events like this possible. If you are joining for the first time, and equally warm welcome and invitation to explore the wide range of programs we offer. Now is your perfect time to turn off your cell phone or anything that may make noise. 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 6100 flight hours and 1000 flight carrier landings with 39 different types of aircraft. For those of you who know his story from the 1986 movie top gun, Jerry Bruckheimer is producing a sequel in 2020. His book is available for purchase and signing. Here to keep the conversation going is larry burke, curator of us Naval Av
A fellow here at hudson and a director for center of american seapower. I hope you have a monograph, the subject of our discussion today. And if you do not, i believe we still have copies at the front desk. By all means, pick up a copy on your way out. We are very fortunate to have with us today, brian graff, this man, my friend and coauthor was also a retired naval officer, formal Deputy Director for american seapower. A prolific writer and also managing director, its a National Security and defense consultancy. Its also a pleasure to welcome david, this man. Also a retired naval officer and defensive uses best writer. I will offer some thoughts based on our monograph. Brian will follow. Then the three of us will discuss, we will conclude with questions and some answers. To the untrained eye, modern military Technology May seem to have eliminated the thought of war that defined premodern battlefields. Victory in historic conflicts relied on the coincidence of skill and luck. The great