When I wasn’t watching documentaries this summer, I seemed to find myself rewatching Top Gun: Maverick. More than once. Okay… probably more times than I should admit.
There is just something about this movie that clicks with me. It has the action, the incredible flying scenes, the music, and that wonderful bit of nostalgia that comes with seeing familiar characters again. But I think what really keeps bringing me back is the story underneath all of it.
I love the idea that sometimes you can't simply follow the book.
The mission in Top Gun: Maverick requires the pilots to draw on everything they have learned—their training, knowledge, experience, and instincts—and then figure out a way to do something that hasn't been done before. They have to trust what they know, trust each other, and find a new way to reach the target and come home.
There is something about that that resonates with me.
Maybe because life is often like that. We collect experiences along the way, and eventually we find ourselves in situations where there isn't a step-by-step guide telling us what to do next. We have to take what we have learned and figure it out as we go.
And that is probably why I became so interested in Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority by Dwight Jon Zimmerman.
For many of us, the words Top Gun immediately bring Tom Cruise, Maverick, fighter jets, and that unforgettable soundtrack to mind. But the real Top Gun existed long before Hollywood created its version of the story.
The United States Navy's Topgun program has more than 50 years of history behind it, and Zimmerman's book takes readers beyond the movie screen and into that history.
And for me, there is an even more personal connection to the original Top Gun movie.
Years ago, my husband had the opportunity to meet Anthony Edwards, who played Goose in the original Top Gun. The meeting took place at the Mazza Museum, which made the encounter even more special because Anthony Edwards has a remarkable connection to the museum himself.
Through a generous donation from Anthony Edwards, the life's work of beloved children's book illustrator Steven Kellogg—including the illustrations from 120 picture books—was donated to the Mazza Museum.
As someone who loves books, authors, illustrators, and museums, I think there is something pretty wonderful about that connection. Here is an actor many of us know because of one of the most iconic aviation movies ever made, and yet his generosity has also helped preserve and share an extraordinary collection of children's book art.
It is one of those unexpected connections I love discovering—the way movies, books, art, history, and real life can somehow intersect.
That is what I find so fascinating about Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority. It reminds me that behind the movies we love, there are real people, real experiences, technological advances, challenges, failures, and triumphs that created the story in the first place.
And perhaps that is what I have been enjoying so much about my reading lately—the collection of pieces that eventually become a much bigger story.
A word, a name, a movie, or even a memory can send me down a completely different path. In this case, watching Top Gun: Maverick over and over again led me to wanting to know more about the real history behind Top Gun.
Then I remembered my husband's encounter with Anthony Edwards and the wonderful connection he has to the Mazza Museum. Suddenly, the story felt a little less like something happening on a movie screen and a little more connected to the world around me.
Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority gives me an opportunity to explore that history more deeply.
I think that is one of the things I love most about books. They can take something we think we already know and make us look at it differently. They give us the opportunity to go beyond the familiar and discover the story behind the story.
So while Top Gun: Maverick may be the movie I keep returning to, Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority is giving me a chance to understand where that story really began.
And I have a feeling that when I finish this book, the next time I watch Top Gun: Maverick, I'll be watching it just a little differently.