There were many great moments in the late 1960s going
through the Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School
(NAOCS) at Naval Air Station NAS Pensacola, Florida. Some
of the most memorable were the incredible stories about Naval
Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California. With the
Vietnam air war raging, NAS Miramar was the nerve-center
of America’s jet fighter aviation. We received remarkable accounts
of F-4 Phantoms and F-8 Crusaders dodging multiple
supersonic SAMS (Surface-to-Air Missiles), jinking through
intense AAA (anti-aircraft) flack traps, and shooting down
enemy MIGS. Those combat veterans, and particularly the
“MIG Killers,” were like gods to us. We also heard about a
new squadron called TOP GUN where the best of the best
combat veterans taught other fighter crews how to win in
combat no matter what. One of the names synonymous with
the founding of TOP GUN, and a name we heard many
times as young flight students, was that of J. C. Smith.
About a year later, after all the training and earning those
“Wings of Gold,” I was assigned to NAS Miramar. I was to
report to the F-4 Replacement Air Group (RAG) squadron,
VF-121. As I was making the check-in rounds at VF-121, I
passed the ready room where real fighter pilots, combat veterans,
and TOP GUN instructors hung out between flights.
There he was: J.C. Smith, bigger than life, playing dice. He
was wearing his aviator sunglasses and garrison cap. I
couldn’t help but gawk. He looked up, saw me gawking,
smiled, and said, “Hey tiger, welcome aboard.” I was a 23-
year-old Ensign, and I just became ten feet tall. Despite his
fame and reputation as a member of the Navy’s first crew of
MIG killers and one of the founders of TOP GUN, I had just
been welcomed into a very special group of aviators by the
man himself, J. C. Smith.
Carol Smith’s account of J.C.’s career in naval aviation,
Journey To Command
is a must-read book for anyone interested
in a fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of how the Navy’s
air-to-air tactics changed to meet the initially deadly MIG
threat. Equally fascinating are the many challenges that had to
be overcome before TOP GUN became operational. One of
the major forces responsible for those remarkable changes
was J. C. Smith.
By Willy Driscoll
