Never Yours

A showdown with frosty

NO SOONER had me and Goose arrived, the briefing started. It wasn't anything we hadn't already covered before but still, the guy droned on and on. Goose sat slumped beside me, knee bouncing from boredom, face an unreadable mask of disinterest and sarcasm.

"During Korea, the navy kill ratio was 12 to 1, meaning we shot down twelve of their jets for everyone of ours. During Vietnam, that ratio fell to 3 to 1. Our pilots had become dependent upon missiles and had lost some of their dogfighting skills. Now, Top Gun was set up to teach ACM or-" the man was cut off by some other arrogant hot shot.

"We know what it means now get to the point!" He shouted, making the rest of the class snicker. I thought this to be rather rude and disrespectful considering that this man was trying to help us.

"That's enough! It means air combat manoeuvring. Thankfully, by the end of Vietnam, that ratio went back up to twelve to 1 due to the aid of Top Gun and it's training." The man continued much to the groans and murmurs of the class. He turned away and I saw his cheeks turn red briefly before he turned back to us and motioned to the officers at the back of the room. "Blinds please." The blinds drew up with a loud smack, flooding the room with sunlight. Most held their arms up to their faces, completely brushing over the fact they had aviators for a reason. I smirked and unclipped mine from my uniform, Goose doing the same.

"Now I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce our commanding officer here at Top Gun. He was the very first man to win the Top Gun trophy, his exploits are astounding. You won't find a finer fighter pilot anywhere else in the world. Commander Mike Metcalf, callsign Viper." The instructor said, slipping away to the side of the room, allowing Viper to take his place at the front of the room, grabbing our attention immediately.

"Gentlemen. You are the top 1% of all naval aviators and judging by the way you treated your superior officer, Commander Hetherly, you will obey the rules and treat the staff with respect. If you do not, you will be washed up from this programme. It is a privilege to be here. Do not abuse it. Is that clear?" He said, calmly. A murmur of responses came from the rest of the room. "I said is that clear?!" He repeated, this time more aggressively.

"Yes sir." The room chorused. Viper nodded, seemingly satisfied with our response. "Good, continuing on. You are the elite, the best of the best. We'll make you better. You'll fly 2 combat missions a day, attend classes in between and have full evaluations of your performances. So make sure you do well and give it your all, the top gun trophy waits for no one. The better your evaluation, the more of a chance you stand against climbing the leaderboard and getting the top prize; our highest honour. In each combat sequence, you're gonna meet a different challenge, each one becoming much more difficult than the last." Viper added, flatly.

It was at this, the blonde haired man from across the aisle looked over at me and caught my peripheral vision. I turned slightly, to stare back at him; into his sharp blue eyes. He sneered at me, spinning his gold pen between his knuckles as he did so. I rolled my eyes and turned back to face the front, not willing to enter into this man's childish games.

"We're going to teach you to fly the F-14 to the edge of the envelope, faster than you've ever flown before and more dangerously! Now we don't make policy here gentlemen, civilians, and government personal do that, we are the instruments of that policy. And although we are not at war, we must always act as though we are, the tip of the spear, best be sharp." Viper went on.

"What're you doing?" Goose asked softly, nudging me as I turned round to face the wall, smiling.

"I'm just wondering, who's the best?" I whispered. I thought I'd been quiet enough for nobody to hear but clearly I'd been wrong because Viper pointed to the American flag, painted on the back wall.