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EXCLUSIVE: 'I'm a fighter pilot like in Top Gun - it's possible I won't come back alive from work'

A gripping new series heads inside the elite world of the Navy and Marine Corps, where pilots face intense strike fighter training to earn their coveted Wings of Gold... but not everyone will make it

[Top Gun students LTJG Spenser Neel, LTJG Dylan Horan, Captain Steph Harris, and Captain Micah Nissly]

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Top Gun students LTJG Spenser Neel, LTJG Dylan Horan, Captain Steph Harris, and Captain Micah Nissly(Image: National Geographic/Freddie Claire)

Maybe its the classic handlebar moustache or maybe its Lieutenant Austin Claggetts fighter pilot bravado, but he has a look about him thats all too familiar. He kind of reminds me of Goose from Top Gun, says aircrew support Susan Moss as the latest class of young US Navy trainees land from their latest mission. Austin retorts: Goose? Goose dies! I hope theres not going to be any similarities. Hes laughing, but the truth is deadly serious.

Each year, 150 students are accepted at the Naval Air Station, Meridian, Mississippi, for the Navy's notoriously difficult advanced fighter training. They are all there to get their coveted Wings of Gold, but not all of them will make the cut, and - just like in the 1986 movie, starring Tom Cruise as Maverick and Anthony Edwards as Goose, they could die trying.

Commander Brad Pancake Thompson, commanding officer, Training Squadron 7, says: This job comes with risk. This is not a flying club. If you make a mistake in this business, it is possible that you dont come back. Tom Cruise is nowhere to be seen, but this is the real Top Gun, where extraordinary men and women at the US Navy and Marine Corps face down hostile threats and carry out audacious missions.

[Student 1st Lt Austin Claggett discovers someone thinks he looks like Goose from Top Gun]

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Student 1st Lt Austin Claggett discovers someone thinks he looks like Goose from Top Gun(Image: National Geographic)

[CDR Brad "Pancake" Thompson, Commanding Officer, Training Squadron 7]

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CDR Brad "Pancake" Thompson, Commanding Officer, Training Squadron 7(Image: National Geographic)

A gripping new National Geographic series, Top Guns: The Next Generation, goes inside this top secret world, with unprecedented access to the advanced phase of elite training. Student pilots face the toughest stage of strike fighter training - six relentless months of aerial drills, dogfights and high-stakes carrier landings, where only the very best will come through and every flight could be make or break.

Austin says: Getting in a jet makes me feel alive. Im here to become a naval aviator. My whole lifes trajectory has been to get to this point. On the runway, lined up, youre at max throttle. Out you go. My family knows me as Crazy Austin, I just do the things that no one dare do.

CDR Thompson adds: There are certain students, when they show up here, theyre on top of the world. Theyre on the way to their dream, but an equal part of them is a deer in the headlights. Coming in with a bit of swagger and a bit of excitement is not atypical, but once everyone has been through their first flight and they see how hard it is and they see how fast it is, they are in for a rude awakening.

"My job is to take those students from, that kid who can fly around at 200 knots, I gotta make them the kid that can fly around at Mach 1 (the speed of sound) with weapons strapped in and enemies shooting at them. This is the transition. The dream is to go and be in Top Gun, wear the patch, this is how you do it.

[Students Spenser Neel, LTJG Dylan Horan, Captain Steph Harris, and Captain Micah Nissly]

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Students Spenser Neel, LTJG Dylan Horan, Captain Steph Harris, and Captain Micah Nissly(Image: National Geographic/Freddie Claire)

It takes many years of training, deployments and combat experience for these trainees to get here, but now the real challenge begins. With gruelling daily tests and every single action monitored and assessed, there will be students who despite their best efforts dont make the grade.

LTJG (Lieutenant Junior Grade) Spenser Neel, whose dad was a fighter pilot, says: I just have a tendency to talk too much, Im working on it. I cant help it. LT Carissa Meinster, who also comes from a military family, says: Someone once described flight school as taking your drivers test every day and the grader is brutal.

With exclusive access to the cockpit and breathtaking aerial cinematography, the six-part Nat Geo series is a gripping story of precision, pressure and perseverance, revealing the personal stakes, sacrifices and motivations that brought them here. No one in Austins family is in the military but being a fighter pilot has been a lifelong dream.

He says: Theres a photo of a nine-year-old me looking in a cockpit and it clearly sparked something inside of me. Austins mum Trina Gilchrist says: Im super proud of him. The fact that hes willing to go out there and risk his life for our country is special. On the flip side, Im terrified.

[Students LT Carissa Meinster and Captain Steph Harris pose behind a T-45]

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Students LT Carissa Meinster and Captain Steph Harris pose behind a T-45(Image: National Geographic/Freddie Claire)

For the squadrons first challenge, they are relocated to a remote base in the Californian desert for their first taste of strike bombing. Bombs are strapped to aircraft for the first time and they are graded on how safely they fly and the accuracy of the bomb drops.

Austin says: Strike is dangerous. The second you start dropping bombs, youre in advanced. Youre no longer learning the basics, youre now learning tactical mission sets. Carissa adds: It feels scary when youre doing something for the first time. There are so many things that could go wrong.

It makes for tense viewing as the pilots fly at top speed in close formation and aim to hit a target. That was the first time that Ive been scared, admits Austin, who tells his instructor: Sir, looking at the ground like that is way different than the simulators. That wasnt nice.

Carissa says: You spend so much time just learning how to fly the airplane that all of a sudden when theyre asking you to do something while flying the airplane, your brain kinda explodes.

Being tasked to drop bombs brings to the fore the confronting fact that they are being trained to kill their enemies. CDR Thompson says: When students check in here, one of the things we talk about is what we are preparing to do in this business - which is ending a human beings life.

If you dont wrestle with the ethics of that, then youre not ready to do this job. LTJG Andrew Seepe says; Ive always been a believer in what this country stands for. Ive always felt very confident that the orders I would be given would be for the betterment of society and hopefully for our troops.

Capt Steph Harris is less confident that she can follow through. She says: You always wonder if you can do it. When its in my face, am I going to be able to kill somebody? I dont know. Spenser adds: I know what I signed up for and Im ok with that. Im proud of that.

[An instructor assesses a student from the rear seat of the jet]

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An instructor assesses a student from the rear seat of the jet(Image: National Geographic)

During a bombing challenge, the pilots are diving at speeds theyve never faced before, and some students struggle with the dynamic moves and start to make high-risk mistakes.

Both Austin and Spenser accidentally fly over the G-force limit of 6.5Gs, which means they have overstressed their jets. As punishment, they must fly up to lame duck, the flight space above everyone else, before going back to base, both hanging their heads in shame. The pilots worry that their dreams have been put in jeopardy.

In later challenges, the squadron must land on an aircraft carrier to prove they can handle the demands of precision flying, a skill vital for all U.S. Navy fighter pilots. As the students reach the midpoint of their training, they start the iconic dogfighting phase - against them are seasoned instructors with hundreds of hours of real-world experience.

To pass, they must out manoeuvre the enemy to take a kill shot. One student has the added pressure of flying with his Top Gun-trained commodore, while another struggles to control his aggressive instincts. The students face their final test in an iconic head-to-head dogfight against an instructor. With graduation hanging in the balance, its their last chance to prove they deserve their prestigious fighter pilot wings. Carissa says: I knew that coming here would be a challenge, I just dont think I had any idea how tough and what kind of tough.

In order to survive the training, the pilots are encouraged to bond, stick together and embrace a work hard, play hard mentality. Steph says: Were all so unique. I love them so much, its been a really good crew to be with. Theres been a lot of bonding moments. We can talk it out and get there together. CDR Thompson says: I believe in work hard, play hard. But the reason that we play together hard is because then youre a unit when life is hard. Someone starts shooting back, its going to be hard. Some of these guys wont come back, so youve gotta be tight.

*Top Guns: The Next Generation premieres on Sunday 21st September at 9pm on National Geographic

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