‘Top Gun’ star Tom Cruise visits crew aboard Norfolk-based USS George H.W. Bush

“Top Gun” star Tom Cruise visited the crew of the Norfolk-based USS George H.W. Bush last week as the warship is in the Adriatic Sea.

Cruise, as well as Hannah Waddingham from the Apple TV+ show “Ted Lasso,” led a special viewing of “Top Gun: Maverick” for sailors March 3 in the hangar bay.

“I know our sailors will never forget that night in the hangar bay, and I am equally as certain that neither will Mr. Cruise,” said Rear Adm. Dennis Velez, commander of the strike group, in a Navy statement released Thursday.

Capt. Dave Pollard, the carrier’s commanding officer and a Top Gun graduate, said the visit “paid dividends” toward crew morale.

“It buoys my spirits to know that the leading entertainers and filmmakers of our day not only conceptually know what we do, but they can relate to what our nation’s warriors do on a daily basis through their personal experiences aboard USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77),” Pollard said.

After departing Naval Station Norfolk more than seven months ago, the crew is nearing the end of a scheduled deployment to the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa’s area of responsibility.

“This is my first deployment, and it’s difficult sometimes to be gone from home and family for such long time,” said Olivia Morton, an aviation support equipment technician, in the release. “Spending time with my friends at the hangar bay event and getting a photo with all of the guests – especially Tom Cruise – was the highlight of a memorable deployment.”

Cruise and Waddingham were also joined on the carrier by “Top Gun: Maverick” writer and producer Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton.

Waddingham will share the screen with Cruise for part two of “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning.”

Caitlyn Burchett, caitlyn.burchett@virginiamedia.com