Top gun air intercept controllers live on the edge.

There are times on a ship when things can feel commonplace. But when you walk into a ship's Combat Direction Center, you are immediately aware that you're in the thick of things.

Lit only by the bluish lights of equipment being used, the center is filled with computer screens which give a trained viewer a picture of the ship's entire area of operations. Here, a team of air intercept controllers (AICs), consisting mostly of enlisted operations specialists, search virtual skies to identify any enemy threat to the ship.

These Sailors are led by one of many officers qualified to be a tactical action officer (TAO). One such TAO rose to this position from the enlisted ranks through excellence as the best of the best.

Ens. Fred Brummer is one of three Top. Gun air intercept controllers stationed aboard Kitty Hawk (CV 63). After proving himself for seven years in the enlisted ranks as an exceptional AIC, achieving 500 air intercepts and becoming a first class petty officer, Brummer was nominated for the prestigious Top Gun program at the Navy Fighter Weapons School in Miramar, Calif. After his Top Gun training, Brummer went on to work on Carrier Air Wing 5's staff as a subject-matter expert on air defense operations. While there, he submitted a package and was selected to become a limited duty officer. "The great thing about going through the Top Gun program is that a lot of people end up getting commissioned," he said. "I believe it's helped me get promoted and given me opportunities to work in joint exercises."

Brummer, who has had 3,300 live intercepts in his 12 years as a Top Gun AIC, knows he's got his work cut out for him, but he says he likes it that way. "I like the fast pace of it," he said. "Specifically in air defense operations, it all happens very fast as opposed to the defense operations of ships or subs. And as a TAO, I have the authority to direct the use of weapon systems or to order fighters to shoot in defense of Kitty Hawk."

Other Top Gun AICs take to the real skies to seek out and attack enemy aircraft. Lt. Chris Hulitt of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 115 recently completed the Top Gun program, now located at NAS Fallon, Nev., and is in the midst of his first operation. He enjoys essentially the same job as Brummer in an offensive role as mission commander from an E-2C Hawkeye. "The thing I love most about my job is having situational awareness in what's going on everywhere--being able to be the crucial link to helping our fighters get the job done" said Hulitt. "It's our job to give them the right information when they want it and how they need it."

Many know about the school from the movie starring Tom Cruise. Both Hulitt and Brummer agree, however, that the Top Gun school is nothing like the movie. "Top Gun was the best experience I have ever had in a Navy school," said Brummer. "But there's no competition. Nobody's trying to get a Top Gun trophy. It's all built on teamwork, and we're all there to help each other."

By JO1 Janet M. Davis, Kitty Hawk (CV 63) Public Affairs