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Living on the Edge as a Top Gun Air Intercept Controller

Navy NewStand

Story Number: NNS030327-10
Release Date: 3/27/2003 10:53:00 PM

By Journalist 1st Class Janet M. Davis, USS Kitty Hawk Public Affairs

ABOARD USS KITTY HAWK, At Sea (NNS) -- There are times on a ship when things can feel commonplace. After all, the Navy trains like it fights. 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 and giving the 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 in preparation to attack 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 best of the best.

Ensign Fred Brummer is one of three Top Gun air intercept controllers stationed aboard USS 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 1st class petty officer, Brummer was nominated for the prestigious Top Gun program, then located at the Navy Fighter Weapons School in Miramar, Calif.

After his Top Gun training, Brummer went on to work on Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5's staff as a subject matter expert on air defense operations. While with CVW-5, he submitted a package to become a limited duty officer. He feels he was selected because of his supportive chain of command.

"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 the opportunities to work in joint exercises."

Brummer, who has had 3,300 live intercepts in his 12 years as a Top Gun, 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 only position on the ship, besides the captain, with the weapon's release authority to direct the use of the weapons systems or to order the fighters to shoot in defense of Kitty Hawk."

In contrast to Brummer's efforts, Top Gun AICs also take to the real skies to seek out and attack enemy aircraft. Lt. Chris Hulitt of CVW-5's Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 115 recently completed the Top Gun program, now located in 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 for 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."

The paths the two Navy men took to get here have been filled with opportunity. According to Brummer, that first opportunity led to all the rest.

"I believe it's helped me get promoted," he said. "After I went to Top Gun, I ended up going to a lot of joint exercises. I've worked with the Japanese air force, the Singapore air force, as well as the U.S. Air Force, and that led me to other opportunities."

Many know of 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 as far as a school in the Navy," said Brummer. "But there's no competition. Nobody's trying to get a Top Gun trophy. It's all actually built on teamwork, and we we're all there to help each other."

America's oldest active warship, Kitty Hawk is currently operating with coalition forces in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the multinational coalition effort to liberate the Iraqi people, eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and end the regime of Saddam Hussein.