Lights, Camera, Tomcat

Elizabeth McCann

Early in his career as a radar intercept officer (RIO) onboard the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet, a movie studio came to make a film on Tom Twomey’s base, Naval Air Station Miramar, California. The producers asked the U.S. Navy to allow service members to act as extras, and Tom’s superiors informed him that he would volunteer — whether he wanted to or not.

He wasn’t thrilled. It meant giving up two weekends to sit around the set of what looked like a small movie aimed at teenagers. Little did he know that film would become one of the most popular movies of all time and transform his job into one of the coolest gigs in naval aviation.

“Top Gun,” released in 1986, turned out to be a smash hit at the box office. It also had a bestselling soundtrack and propelled stars Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer to superstardom. The movie was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2015. The film was also a showcase for the Grumman F-14 Tomcat.

And Tom had a part in it.