Topgun : an American story / Dan Pedersen.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue. Palm Desert, California, 2018 -- Admission price -- First tribe -- The Navy way -- Fight club -- Where are the carriers? -- The path to disillusionment -- Yankee Station education -- Starting Topgun -- The original bros -- Secrets of the tribe -- Proof of concept -- Topgun goes to war -- The last missing man -- The peace that never was -- End of the Third Temple -- Return with honor -- Topgun and the Tomcat -- Black shoes -- The best and the last -- One more goodbye -- Saving Topgun -- Will we have to lose a war again? (or, Back to the future in an F-35) -- Topgun officers in charge and commanding officers.

"The founder of the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons program, aka "TOPGUN," shares the untold story of how he and eight other young pilots revolutionized the art of aerial combat and created the center for excellence and incubator of leadership that thrives to this day."--Provided by publisher.

When American fighter jets were being downed at an unprecedented rate during the Vietnam War, the U.S. Navy turned to Pedersen, a young lieutenant commander. On a shoestring budget and with little support, Pedersen picked eight of the finest pilots to help train a new generation to bend jets like the F-4 Phantom to their will and learn how to dogfight all over again. The result raised the Navy's combat kill ratio from two enemy planes downed for every American plane lost to more than 22 to 1. Pedersen takes readers from Miramar to Area 51 to the decks of aircraft carriers in war and peace, through a historic moment in air warfare. -- adapted from jacket