#VeteranOfTheDay Navy Veteran Dan Pedersen

Dan Pedersen joined the Navy in 1953. He was an excited mechanic who later became one of the founders of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, also known as TOPGUN. As a mechanic, Pedersen also had hopes of flying. After being accepted into the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in 1955, he completed his flight training in March 1957 and was assigned to squadron VF(AW)-3. He then transferred to a Fleet Replacement Squadron to learn to fly new aircraft, which he would encounter in his eight months on the USS Hancock. In 1968, he was restationed on the USS Enterprise, where he joined VF-121 as a tactics instructor.

Throughout the Vietnam War, air casualties were especially high. In an interview, Pedersen reported seeing 11 deaths in 17 days while aboard the USS Enterprise. In 1967, he stated that the U.S. Navy lost an average of one pilot for every two North Vietnamese aircraft shot down. When the Ault Report was released in January 1969, it was decided that the best way to lower U.S. casualties would be to create a graduate level flight school to better equip pilots. Pedersen was selected to be the leader of this graduate school and was sent to Naval Air Station Miramar along with eight other highly trained pilots to teach upcoming fighter pilots. Pedersen was only a 33-year-old lieutenant commander when selected to lead the program.

The strategy for teaching pilots was unlike previous training. Pedersen and his colleagues created their lesson plans by gathering information and studying enemy aircraft and weapons down to their very engineering. They practiced dogfights with acquired enemy aircraft that technologically surpassed the U.S. Navy's aircraft at the time. Even with better technology, the goal was to exceed enemy pilot abilities, relying more on the skills of the pilot than the limits of the fighter planes alone. Pedersen and his other instructors were successful in their planning; three months after being tasked with the school, TOPGUN opened in March 1969. Graduates of the school were significantly more prepared and took down an average of 24 enemies for every one U.S. pilot lost.

Pedersen and other instructors worked seven days a week, waking up each day at 4:30 a.m. He would often sleep in his car in order to not waste time traveling that could be used for planning lessons and strategies. To build team camaraderie, he and his students would play racquetball four to five times a week. His program developed the top 1% of fighter pilots and solidified protocols which are still taught today over 50 years later.

Pedersen's goal was to always inspire and motivate the pilots and instructors. In a 2019 reflection, he wrote, "We would aspire to build their confidence, not destroy it. They were professionals and future mentors in training." He has since retired, and in a 2019 interview with Time Magazine, he commented on the 1986 film "Top Gun", saying he especially liked the camera photography of tactical aircraft.

We honor his service.

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Writer: Sarah McDonald

Editors: Tayler Rairigh, Mary Margaret Brennan

Researcher: John Bergstrom

Graphic Designer: Charles Hundley

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