Top Gun, the Ethics of CAPT Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
Every now and then, we get a chance to expand our apeture here at the Stockdale Center. With the Summer release of Top Gun Maverick, we have just that chance. Our guest host on this episode is Marc LiVecche, the McDonald Distinguished Scholar of Ethics, War, and Public Life at Providence: A Journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy, where he speaks with Captain Ryan Bernacchi, USN (Ret.) about Top Gun: Maverick.
Both Marc and Ryan separately have been guest on this podcast. This time, Marc is hosting Ryan on a wide-ranging conversation that celebrates the sequel to Top Gun, the Movie, reminisces about CAPT Bernacchi’s own military career, connects the film with ethics instruction at the Naval Academy, examines character formation through the eyes of Maverick, and examines some of the film’s more complex handing of difficult ethical issues–including the tension military leaders face between successfully completing critical missions and keeping their personnel safe. You can find a link to that longer conversation at our web site, and I commend that to you. For an abstract, we present this podcast, Top Gun, the Ethics of CAPT Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.
https://providencemag.com/video/tg2-maverick-film-talk-with-former-topgun-instructor-capt-ryan-guido-bernacchi/
Marc LiVecche is the McDonald Distinguished Scholar of Ethics, War, and Public Life at Providence. He is also a non-resident research fellow at the US Naval War College, in the College of Leadership and Ethics. His first book, The Good Kill: Just War & Moral Injury, was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press. He can be followed, or stalked, on twitter @mlivecche.
Ryan Bernacchi is a former TOPGUN instructor who served as a naval aviator and leader for 25 years. He has flown more than 4,000 hours in FA-18 Hornets and Super Hornets, as well as the F-16 Viper. He had made multiple deployments flying real world missions from the decks of our Navy’s aircraft carriers. Notably, CAPT Bernacchi served as the commanding officer for a Super Hornet Squadron, and was the Commanding Officer and Flight Leader (#1) of the Blue Angels. We met Ryan when he was the Deputy Commandant for Leadership and Character Development at the Naval Academy.
Ryan Bernacchi is a former TOPGUN instructor who served as a naval aviator and leader for 25 years. He has flown more than 4,000 hours in FA-18 Hornets and Super Hornets, as well as the F-16 Viper. He had made multiple deployments flying real world missions from the decks of our Navy’s aircraft carriers. Notably, CAPT Bernacchi served as the commanding officer for a Super Hornet Squadron, and was the Commanding Officer and Flight Leader (#1) of the Blue Angels. We met Ryan when he was the Deputy Commandant for Leadership and Character Development at the Naval Academy.