Mostly I don't really like Tom Cruise and that hasn't changed.

That's when I still liked him, baby Cruise. And, Val Kilmer! How much more hot could you ask for?

It always pissed me off just a little that they had to wait until only a couple months after I transferred out of Topgun to make the movie. I would have loved to have gotten to meet all the actors. I always have to laugh whenever I see them holding "class" out in the hangar bay. The actual classrooms were the smallest, dimmest, most institutional looking rooms you could have imagined. And the maintenance departments were in single wide trailers that went by the name of Delta House. Still, it was probably one of the Navy's greatest recruiting tools during the 80's and they didn't have to pay anything for it.

You went to TopGun???

t falls head over heels in love

I wanted to be a fighter pilot or fly with the Blue Angels.

Alas. they don't let you do those things if you have a seizure disorder.

I think the only film I liked with Cruise was Risky Business which was much fun.

I wanted to be a fighter pilot or fly with the Blue Angels.

ME TOO! And it was all because of Top Gun. They didn't let women fly fighter planes when I was applying to schools or I would have applied to the Naval Academy. I was almost an Army helicopter pilot but I let me parents and loser ex-husband talk me out of it. I guess it worked out okay in the end, however, because I would never have met Joe if I had gone that route.

Still, I used to get goosebumps watching the Thunderbirds fly over my house on special Air Force game days.

Yep, living near Miramar definitely has its advantages... I love the jets.

( Though not the Sharks as I have an unusual hate-on for West Side Story. )

Aimee, you have to understand the squadron may have had 35/40 pilot-instructors, but it had a maintenance crew of around 125 to take care of all the airplanes. So, I did not "go" to Topgun, I was part of Topgun for two years as an electronics technician that supported the avionics equipment onboard the aircraft. The class that fighter pilots went to was five weeks long, then we'd be "down" for three weeks getting the planes back into shape for the next class. Sending a graduating class "bye-bye" was always cause for a squadron party, I think we had more of them than any other squadron on base.

Stephanie, you must have just missed the cutoff when it came to women in fighter planes. By the time I got out in '93, it wasn't common, but it was happening. All the carriers had been opened to women, so they had to start letting them into all the various types of squadrons by then. Still, women only make up a little over 10% of the Navy, so you're not going to see a lot of female pilots.

Sail, that's awesomer than going. Still in love.

By the time I got out in '93, it wasn't common, but it was happening.

Yep - I would have started in '92. When they opened it up to women, I briefly considered transferring, but since I had been able to take 2 years of college during high school, going to an academy would have meant starting from scratch after 3 years of college.

going to an academy would have meant starting from scratch after 3 years of college.

Now, that would have been of the suck. I can see why you chose not to go that route.

Yeah, I remember the announcement pretty clearly because it was the first time I realized that I was old enough that certain doors had closed to me.

I don't know about your experience, but one of the reasons I'm okay with not having done it is because in my experience, being a woman in the military is a constant battle to prove yourself good enough, tough enough, and strong enough. I could never carry enough, walk as far, do as many push-ups, etc. as the guys I was with. It had nothing to do with my ability to do my job, but I got tired of always feeling inadequate before I'd even lifted a finger.