Dave Baranek

From Topgun to Squadron Command You're in the cockpit of the legendary F-14 Tomcat fighter, blazing along at twice the speed of sound seven miles above the ocean and the carrier that hurled you off its deck. You're practising dogfighting with "aggressors," guys on your side flying F-16s. You're patrolling the tense skies above Iraq, and with the push of...

Dave Baranek, known by his callsign "Bio," was one of 451 young men who received his Wings of Gold in 1980 as a naval flight officer. Four years later, seasoned by intense training and deployments during the tense confrontations of the Cold War, he became the only one of that initial group to rise and become an instructor at the...