Mark J Stansell (@MarkJStansell)

Throwback Thursday! With the hoopla over the 40th anniversary of “Top Gun,” I figured it was time to post a few pics from my own journey way back. And yes, we watched both the original and “Maverick” this week, but due to the flight schedule and Roxette’s out of area doctor appointment, we watched them in the comfort of home. “Top Gun” wasn’t the catalyst for my original interest in Naval Aviation. I had long waned to be an #astronaut. Knowing that a majority of the #Mercury, #Gemini, and #Apollo astronauts had been Naval Aviators, I had my eyes set on Navy Wings of Gold as a stepping stone to the space program a good ten or twelve years prior to the movie. Long story short, life took me in a different direction initially and in 1986, I was working for Applied Materials in Santa Clara, CA as a field engineer on semiconductor production equipment. “Top Gun” got me thinking about #NASA again. I went to see the officer recruiter, and was accepted to #AOCS on 7 November 1986. I did put in my NASA application about ten years later while at Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. Competition for the program is intense, and suffice to say, I wasn’t accepted, but at least I gave it a shot. And, nearly 40 years later, I’m still flying, chasing sunsets and sunrises as a Captain for Piedmont. 1st pic: Commodore’s List award with TRAWING ONE CO, Captain Ken Storms, an old A-5 driver. 19 April 1998 2nd pic: T-2C FCLP Class at the shack out at Joe Williams OLF north of Meridian, MS. Yours’ truly on the left, Chris Provan in the center, Jeff Avaiz to the right of him, Jamie Campbell far right. The other two, I recognize but cannot pull their names out of memory. Mid-September 1988 3rd pic: My former boss and mentor, John Laughterslager, God rest his soul, from Applied Materials, during a cross-country stop at Moffett Field on the way to El Centro. The aircraft is a TA-4J Skyhawk. 26 February 1989 4th pic: Right after the hosing down following my last flight in the A-4. Mark Whittman, who was also in my AOCS class on the left. Winging was later in the afternoon the same day. (Pics from that on my website, see “Over the Time Horizon.) 12 May 1989 #ThrowbackThursday #flashback #topgun #maverick #TopGunMaverick #navalaviation #militaryaviation #aviation #Buckeye #Skyhawk #navalaviator #navypilot #militarypilot #pilotlife #AppliedMaterials #semiconductor #cranialrectalextraction