Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer,with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.,and was inspired by an article titled "Top Guns",written by Ehud Yonay and published in California magazine three years earlier. It stars Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell,a young naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and his radar intercept officer,Lieutenant Nick "Goose" Bradshaw,are given the chance to train at the United States Navy's Fighter Weapons School at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego,California. Kelly McGillis,Val Kilmer and Tom Skerritt also appear in supporting roles.
Michèle Angélique Flournoy is an American defense policy advisor who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy under President Bill Clinton and under secretary of defense for policy under President Barack Obama.
David Ohlmer "Doc" Cooke was a United States Department of Defense civilian administrator who served under twelve Secretaries of Defense over a period of 45 years. Often called the "Mayor of the Pentagon",Cooke was the department's highest-ranking career civil servant as Director of Administration and Management,and as Director of Washington Headquarters Services. He was also responsible for administering the oath of office for many key department officials.
Patricia Ann Tracey is a retired United States naval officer and the first woman to be promoted to the rank of vice admiral in the United States Navy. She held the positions of chief of naval education and training (CNET) (1996–98),Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy (1998–2001),and director of navy staff from 2001 until the time of her retirement on October 1,2004. At that time,she was also the all-time senior-ranking female officer in the United States military.
Michelle Janine Howard is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral who last served as the commander of the United States Naval Forces Europe,United States Naval Forces Africa and Allied Joint Force Command Naples. She previously was the 38th Vice Chief of Naval Operations. She assumed her last assignment on June 7,2016.
Robert Leon Wilkie Jr. is an American lawyer and government official who served as the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs from 2018 to 2021,during the Trump administration. He was previously Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness during the Trump administration,from November 2017 to July 2018. A Naval intelligence officer in the Reserve,he was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs in the administration of President George W. Bush.
Robert Orton Work is an American national security professional who served as the 32nd United States Deputy Secretary of Defense for both the Obama and Trump administrations from 2014 to 2017. Prior to that,Work was the United States Under Secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2013,and before that served as a colonel in the United States Marine Corps;Work retired in 2001 and worked as a civilian at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) and the George Washington University in various positions relating to military and strategic study. From 2013 to 2014,he was the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). After his time as Deputy Secretary of Defense,he went on to serve on the board of Raytheon. As of October 2023,he serves on the Special Competitive Studies Project's board of advisors.
Letitia A. Long served as a civilian in the U.S. Navy and the Intelligence Community between 1978 and 2014,retiring as the fifth Director the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency,and the first woman to lead a major U.S. intelligence agency,in October 2014. She currently is the Chairman of the Board for the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA).
Lisa W. Hershman is an American government official who served as the chief management officer of the Department of Defense from December 19,2019,to January 1,2021. She previously served as the Deputy Chief Management Officer of the Department of Defense from April 13,2018,to December 19,2019. On December 1,2018,she became the acting chief management officer of the Department of Defense following the resignation of John H. Gibson. On July 22,2019,Hershman was nominated for the position of Chief Management Officer of the Department of Defense.[3] On December 19,2019,this nomination was approved by a voice vote of the U.S. Senate,making her the highest-ranking woman ever confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a Pentagon position at the time.
Mary Walker is an American lawyer who served as a high-ranking appointee under Presidents Ronald Reagan,George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
James Northey Miller Jr. is the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory's Assistant Director for Policy and Analysis and also serves on the National Security Council staff as U.S. Coordinator for the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) security agreement. He previously served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 18,2012 until January 8,2014 and as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense from April 2009 to February 2012.
Anthony Jean Tata,is an American retired United States Army officer,author,and government official. He is a retired brigadier general of the United States Army (1981–2009),and later served as a school district administrator for two large school districts in the District of Columbia and North Carolina. He served as Secretary of Transportation of North Carolina from 2013 to 2015 under Governor Pat McCrory. Tata is the author of the Threat series of thriller novels.
Marie Elizabeth Harf is an American political commentator for the Fox News Channel and former deputy campaign manager for policy and communications for the Representative Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) presidential campaign. She served as the Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry,leading the Iran nuclear negotiations communications strategy. Prior to that,Harf was Acting Spokesperson and Deputy Spokesperson for the United States Department of State.
John F. Kirby is a retired United States Navy rear admiral serving as White House National Security Communications Advisor since 2022. He previously served in the Biden administration as Pentagon Press Secretary and Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs from 2021 to 2022. He worked as a military and diplomatic analyst for CNN from 2017 to 2021. He served in the Obama administration as Pentagon Press Secretary from 2013 to 2015 and as the spokesperson for the United States Department of State and Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from 2015 to 2017.
Kelly Colleen Degnan is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service,class of Minister-Counselor,who served as the United States Ambassador to Georgia from 2020 to 2023. Prior to that she served as the Political Advisor to the Commander of United States Naval Forces Europe / United States Naval Forces Africa. Previously,she was the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) to the U.S. Mission to Italy and San Marino in Rome,Italy. In September 2019,she was nominated to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Georgia.
Janine Anne Davidson is an American public servant who has served as the President of the Metropolitan State University of Denver since 2017. Davidson is known for expertise on topics such as military operations,U.S. foreign policy and national security policy as well as higher education leadership.
Ellen M. Lord is an American businesswoman and government official who previously served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment in the Trump administration. She was previously the CEO of Textron Systems,a global aerospace,defense,security,and advanced technologies industrial conglomerate. In her position,she was the chief weapons purchaser for the United States,responsible for overseeing hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons and services acquisitions programs in the United States Department of Defense.
Christine Elizabeth Wormuth is an American defense official and career civil servant who serves as the United States Secretary of the Army since 2021. She is the first female United States Secretary of the Army.
Guy Snodgrass is a retired American naval aviator,TOPGUN graduate and instructor,who served as Jim Mattis's speechwriter and chief of communications during his time as Secretary of Defense. His book Holding the Line:Inside Trump's Pentagon with Secretary Mattis was released in October 2019. The book details key decisions and moments during Mattis's time as Secretary of Defense and provides the author's first-hand look into the relationship between Mattis and Trump,the Pentagon,The White House,and American national security decision making.
Kathleen Anne Holland Hicks is an American civil servant who has served as the United States deputy secretary of defense since 2021. She is the first Senate-confirmed woman in this role and is the highest ranking woman to have served in the United States Department of Defense.
