TOPGUN – Legacy and Myth

Capt. Donald Auten, USN Ret’d, will give a talk on the Navy’s TOPGUN fighter pilot school at the Coronado Public Library on Saturday November 12 at 11:00a.m. in the Library Winn Room. The talk is part of the Coronado Library’s commemoration of the Centennial of Naval Aviation.

During the early years of the air war over Vietnam, U. S. air power was locked in combat with a horrific loss of front line fighters and attack aircraft.The Navy directed Captain Frank Ault to analyze the causes of the dismal air-to-air performance of our fighters and make recommendations to improve combat capabilities.

In November 1968, Captain Ault submitted the Report of the Air-to-Air Missile System Capability Review to the Chief of Naval Operations. The “Ault Report,” as it became known, was a 480-page document that analyzed air-to-air performance of Navy aircraft, weapons, and aircrew.  Captain Ault stated, “… (Navy) has grown into a combat philosophy where we were placing more reliance on the machine than on the man …”   A set of his recommendations provided the impetus for the inauguration of the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School—what would become known as TOPGUN.

On March 3, 1969, a year after the bombing halt and only four months after the submission of the Ault report, TOPGUN conducted its first class. Fighter crews graduating from the four-week course were hungrily assimilated by Navy front line fighter units. These TOPGUN graduates returned to their squadrons with a new comprehension of tactics, weapons systems employment, and airmanship.

TOPGUN has gained notoriety as the world’s most elite and influential air-to-air combat tactics development institution of its time. It has become the lofty realm of the fighter titans, the forgery of strike/fighter tactics and the bloodless proving ground for front-line tactical aircrew. The TOPGUN instructors are charged with improving fighter doctrine to exploit weaknesses in the evolving threat; adjusting procedures to maximize the latest military technologies; and disseminating the latest tactics, techniques and procedures to the fleet. Capt. Donald Auten will talk about TOPGUN, the Legacy and the Myth at the Coronado Public Library. 

Speaker Donald Auten is the author of “Roger Ball! The Odyssey of John Monroe “Hawk” Smith Navy Fighter Pilot. “Roger Ball!” is a seven “G”, heart-in-the-throat story of the very unforgiving profession of naval aviation.  It tells of the raw courage of naval aviators operating from the decks of aircraft carriers in peace and in war, during good weather and in poor. Copies of Roger Ball! will be on sale and can be autographed by the author.

 Captain Donald Auten retired from the Navy in November 1998 following a twenty-seven year career. He completed two commanding officer assignments and several staff postings on both coasts.  Although originally trained as a light attack pilot, he graduated from TOPGUN fighter and adversary courses and became an adversary instructor pilot in four adversary squadrons.  In the course of seventeen years of operational flying Donald completed six squadron assignments and logged nearly 5,000 hours. He makes his home in Coronado, California with his wife, Katherine Sullivan Auten, and two Labradors.

 All profits in the sale of “Roger Ball!” are donated to the SEAL Foundation.