So two veterans that I know, one a former Marine and one a former Sailor, told me that Tom Cruise was attacked on an aircraft carrier while filming Top Gun. These two gentlemen do no know each other. The Marine told me he knows someone personally that was there when the incident happened.

Apparently, Tom Cruise was being an ass while on the boat and one of the crew attacked him with the intention of throwing him overboard from the flight deck. An officer had to shoot the enlisted guy to get him to stop attacking Tom Cruise. I googled to see if this was true and didn't find anything on it.

Is this an 'urban myth' type thing or is it true?

PanzerAggie06 said:

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I spent 9 years in the Army so I know nothing of aircraft carriers but when I read that I immediately wondered how an officer would have such quick access to a weapon IOT shoot a sailor. And if it did occur there is no way this story would have flown under the radar all these years.

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Exactly. People aren't just walking around armed on the flight deck. And that would be a huge story.

I'm sure the media wasn't interested in reporting on a Naval officer shooting an enlisted man on an aircraft carrier to protect Tom Cruise.

Sheesh.

OP, go back to the Q thread and stay there this time.

Quote:

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An officer had to shoot the enlisted guy to get him to stop attacking Tom Cruise.

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As I close my eye and think back to the six months I spent aboard an LHA and try to remember the number of Navy officers that I ever saw with a sidearm the number I come up with is zero except for the Officer of of the Deck who was ensuring that the liberty log was signed when the ship was tied up at the pier.

If this event actually happened, when the sailor began to assault Tom Cruise the officer would have almost certainly had to run from the flight deck to the armory several decks below to draw a weapon and then to draw the ammo he would have probably had to sign a chit explaining that, "I need to shoot a sailor who is presently assaulting a Scientologist on the flight deck". He would have then had to run back up to the flight deck to shoot the sailor.

I got my wings about 10 months before "Top Gun" opened, but the legends around its filming made it popular among Naval Aviators even before its release.

A couple stories worth sharing, one of which is on topic.

Off-topic: lots of sagas floated around Miramar about Kelly McGillis, which made me question the sanity of the guys who'd allegedly, uh, "given her her wings"- she always looked like a reformed fat chick to me.

On topic: the rumor indeed was that Tom Cruise was kinda cold to the enlisted guys aboard the ship during their week of filming- nothing as draconian as what the OP suggests, but more along the lines of treating our sailors like they were the help, refusing autograph requests, et cetera. When he later got a VIP ride with The Blue Angels, his pilot had been told the rumors of Tom's aloofness aboard ship and unilaterally decided to make Tom Cruise lament his lack of amity for our sailors; as well as ever accepting the Maverick role. Word was Tom Cruise was taken up and abused with g's and outer-edge maneuvers to the point that he shiite in his trou.

Both the above are merely rumors, related in 1985 about events that transpired in 1984- so take it fwiw.

rumor has it Goose was sleeping with Merlon. Mav got pissed and ***** slapped a sailor and approached Viper to sing a duet in the local bar.