Dan Pedersen is a retired

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

, credited as being the leading force behind the creation of the

Fighter Weapons School program known as “

TOPGUN The United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI program), more popularly known as Top Gun (stylized as TOPGUN), is a United States Navy Military education and training, training program that teaches Air combat manoeuvr ...

”.

Military career

Pedersen joined the Navy in 1953 as an enlisted mechanic. In 1955, he was accepted into the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. After completing flight training on 1 March 1957, he was assigned to VF(AW)-3 flying the

Douglas F4D Skyray The Douglas F4D Skyray (later redesignated F-6 Skyray) is an American carrier-based supersonic fighter/interceptor designed and produced by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was the first naval fighter to exceed the speed of sound in level fli ...

. In 1962, he reported to VF-121, the west coast

Fleet Replacement Squadron A Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS), is a unit of the United States Navy or United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps that trains United States Naval Aviator, Naval Aviators, Naval Flight Officers (NFOs) and enlisted Naval aircrewman, Naval Aircre ...

, for transition training to fly the

McDonnell F3H Demon The McDonnell F3H Demon is a subsonic swept-wing carrier-based jet fighter aircraft designed and produced by the American manufacturer McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. It was the first swept wing jet fighter and the only single-engined carrier- ...

following which he was assigned to

VF-213 Strike Fighter Squadron 213 (VFA-213), also known as the Blacklions, is a renowned United States Navy fighter squadron. Established in 1955, the squadron operated a variety of aircraft over its history, beginning with the McDonnell F2H Banshee. ...

. In February 1963, VF-213 embarked on an 8-month cruise onboard . After transition training to fly the

McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American Tandem#Aviation, tandem two-seat, twinjet, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic aircraft, supersonic jet interceptor aircraft, interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by ...

he joined VF-92. The squadron deployed on the from 3 January to 18 July 1968. In late 1968, Pedersen joined VF-121 at NAS Miramar as a tactics instructor. In January 1969, the Navy published the ''

Ault Report The ''Ault Report'', or more formally, the ''Air-to-Air Missile System Capability Review'', was a sweeping study of United States Navy air-to-air missile performance during the period of 1965 to 1968, conducted by Navy Captain Frank Ault. The stu ...

'', which concluded that U.S. aircraft losses over North Vietnam stemmed in part from inadequate air-crew training in

air combat maneuvering Air combat manoeuvring (ACM) is the tactic of moving, turning, and situating one's fighter aircraft in order to attain a position from which an attack can be made on another aircraft. Commonly associated with dogfighting, air combat manoeuvres r ...

(ACM). The report recommended that an "Advanced Fighter Weapons School" be established at

Naval Air Station Miramar Marine Corps Air Station Miramar (MCAS Miramar) is a United States Marine Corps installation that is home to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, which is the aviation element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force. It is located in Miramar, a communi ...

under the control of VF-121 to revive and disseminate community fighter expertise throughout the fleet. The report stated that the Advanced Fighter Weapons School was to have: one Officer-in-charge (F-4 or

F-8 Crusader The Vought F-8 Crusader (originally F8U) is a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based air superiority jet aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Vought. It was the last American fighter that had guns as the primar ...

pilot), three F-4 pilot instructors, three F-4 Radar Intercept Officer instructors, three F-8 pilot instructors and an Aviation Ordnance Officer. The school would train twenty (20) F-4 Phantom II aircrews and ten (10) F-8 Crusader Naval Aviators per year. The aircrew syllabus would consist of 25 hours per pilot/aircrew in the F-8 or F-4, 75 hours of classes and a course duration of four weeks. Pedersen was appointed as the first officer in charge of the school. The U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School was established on 3 March 1969. Following the implementation of the program, the Navy kill ratio in Vietnam went from 2.5:1 to 24:1. He relinquished command of the school in mid-1969. In February 1973 he joined VF-143 on the USS ''Enterprise'' and flew combat operations over

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

and

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

until the ''Enterprise'' returned to Pearl Harbor in June 1973. He was later appointed commander of VF-143 and the squadron embarked onboard for a Mediterranean cruise from 3 January to 3 August 1974. In April 1975, he joined Carrier Air Wing Fifteen aboard the in preparation for taking command of the wing. During this time, he flew fighter cover in support of the

Mayaguez Incident The ''Mayaguez'' incident took place between Democratic Kampuchea, Kampuchea (now Cambodia) and the United States from 12 to 15 May 1975, less than a month after the Khmer Rouge took Fall of Phnom Penh, control of the capital Phnom Penh ousting ...

. In 1976, he was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

and subsequently attended the Prospective Commanding Officers Course. From 28 March 1978 to 21 December 1979 he commanded the tanker . On 20 October 1980, he became the captain of the aircraft carrier . In April 1981 Airman Recruit Paul A. Trerice died in the ''Ranger''s correctional custody unit. Trerice's father brought a lawsuit against Pedersen, ''Ranger''s executive officer and others but the case was dismissed. On 11 June 1982 he relinquished command of ''Ranger'' and became deputy chief of staff for the Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Due to political opposition as a result of Trerice's death, his name was removed from the 1983 promotion list to

rear admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

and he retired from the Navy on 1 March 1983.

Later life

The success of TOPGUN earned him the title the ‘Godfather of TOPGUN’. In 2018, one year prior to the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of TOPGUN, Pedersen was honored at Palm Springs Air Museum Gala. In 2019, his book ''TOPGUN: An American Story'' was published to critical acclaim. In the book he warned that U.S. naval aviators weren't getting enough flight time, weren't practicing dogfighting and that an over-reliance on technology risked repeating the situation that occurred in the early years of the Vietnam War.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pedersen, Dan United States Naval Flight Officers American military writers 20th-century American naval officers American Vietnam War pilots United States Navy personnel of the Vietnam War

Military career

Later life

See also

References