Top Gun co-pilot also served three combat tours to Vietnam
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Born on a farm in Oklahoma, Vernon Maddux dreamed of flying through the skies and being among the best to do it. And he did.
Maddux was selected for Navy Fighter Weapons School, or Top Gun, while also serving three different combat tours to Vietnam in the early 1970s.
After graduating from Southwestern State University in Oklahoma, Maddux joined the Marines through the officer training program in 1966. He learned to fly in a “Bug Smasher” at flight school in Pensacola, Florida. Then he trained on how to fly his first fighter jet, a F-4 Phantom.
After receiving his wings in August 1967, Major Maddux completed his first combat deployment to Vietnam with VMFA-122 and VMFA-314 from June 1968 through July 1969.
“We lost one airplane that didn’t pull out of its dive, and we went there and found the guy’s helmet,” said Maddux.
When he returned to the States, Maddux was sent to Top Gun school in San Diego.
“I was selected to go there as a student, and I was selected to go as an instructor,” he said.
Maddux didn’t have perfect eyesight, so he sat in the backseat as “RIO” or Radar Intercept Officer. He was the first Marine RIO to go to Top Gun.
“Being sent there was wonderful,” said Maddux. “We flew every morning and debriefed every afternoon.”
His second tour to Vietnam was with VMFA-531, flying bombing missions and close air support missions in F-4 Phantoms. Then in July 1973, he returned to flight duty with VMFA-451. The “Warlords” were the first squadron to make use of air-to-air refueling.
“I lost my wingman. He flew into an F-4 while we were refueling,” Maddux recalled.
Maddux served as Top Gun instructor for three and a half years between 1975 and 1979.
While he was flying, he was known among his ranks to be the best RIO out there, which meant he flew with the very best pilots.
“The idea was to teach rookies how to be better flying the F-4,” he said.
After Top Gun, Maddux rejoined the Marines on the East Coast.
“I was a XO of a fighter squadron and got selected for lieutenant colonel,” he said.
After that, Maddux went on to be the U.S. Marines Liaison Officer at Red Flag Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, where he flew the F-14 Tomcat. In 1985, he attended Aviation Safety Naval Post Graduate School, and in 1987, he moved to Hawaii and retired after 21 years.
Maddux returned to Oklahoma and taught history at several small colleges. He’s also written a handful of books, including one about the early history of Norman, Oklahoma, and one titled “In Dull Knife’s Wake – The True Story of the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878”.
Maddux currently lives in Wichita.
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