Military Laws Broken: Top Gun (with real JAG)

Sorry goose, but it's time to ring the tower, that seems super bad, yes, as Maverick's defense attorney, I must say that right now you should not say anything to anyone about what just happened, lock yourself in a room and I hope for the best, we'll have a good time, there's always a new top gun that reminded me that they broke a lot of

laws

in the original movie, but to talk about all the

military

laws

that Maverick and Goose broke, I needed help, so I called some air support to my lawyer friend and former marine major the frowning owl to my legal eagle Spencer Spencer thanks for stopping by happy to be here in Devon so apparently everyone on the internet is an expert in

military

law but what makes you qualified?

To talk about all the laws

broken

at Top Gun, I was a defense attorney in the Marine Corps, where I prosecuted people, including at Miramar Marine Corps Air Base, which is where Top Gun was actually established. I was also an artillery officer and a joint terminal attack officer. Controller, I did that in Iraq where I was calling in airstrikes and what that means is I was working with pilots to my left, to my right and above me and I saw the good, the bad and the ugly and now I'm an assistant U.S. attorney for district. in the Pacific Northwest, where he prosecutes serious crimes.

Alright, Internet, a

real

ex-Marine has entered the chat, so watch out, Devin, I have the need, the need for speed, not the need to put some pilots in jail, okay, let's dig in, you know? It's a minor detail, but there isn't actually a MiG-28, there

real

ly isn't a MiG-28 that sounds like the real thing, we see a MiG-28 do a negative 4g dive, no, there's actually a MiG-29. , but I think they just subtracted one for this movie for some reason the mate 28 oh, okay, so what are the planes they replace? Well, whatever bad guy is pissing off the Americans here, mate 28.

Those are actually F5s that have been painted black and added that little red star on the tail huh, interesting you know, fun fact, actually They never identify who the enemy or the opposition is in this entire movie and we know for a fact that it's the same one at the beginning and at the end it's just the opposite side the bad side this is the ghost writer 117 this ghost is on me he has a missile locked on me I have permission to shoot no so this is a strange situation it is not unusual for there to be tension between the armies where the governments are They are not exactly friendly with each other, I mean we have to understand this movie since we are not at war with this other country.

Obviously, this is the cold war. There are tensions, but we are not really in a shooting war. The problem is the second. that whoever shoots, the other person can shoot back in the law of war, self defense is always available to one party, so the pilot here is actually making the right decision, we are not going to start the war and whoever whoever that commander is saying You can't shoot until you're shot because the United States doesn't want to start this shooting war, yes, and anyone who is in the military and is going to participate in direct combat operations or close to combat operations, what will do.

They will be briefed on all kinds of rules of engagement, what they are allowed to do, what kind of permission they have to participate, but one thing that every Marine soldier is taught before going on a deployment is that he is allowed to act in self-defense. , you just have to use your judgment and be very careful before starting a shooting war with someone we are not in a shooting war with. Is this your idea of ​​fun? Greetings, look at the little bird, okay? I'm just a humble country lawyer, but it seems to me that if an f14 was inverted on top of an f5, the rear wings would hit each other and, yeah, I mean, even if they weren't somehow, that seems like something inherently dangerous.

It's just that if I were the commanding officer of these pilots, I wouldn't want them to reverse because if they crashed, they would have started a whole international incident, which seems like a really bad idea. I mean, this is the kind of behavior that's so Hollywood, but right now they're committing a crime. Oddly enough, they're committing a crime as cool as it is: the crime is unduly endangering an airplane, and the reality of that crime is that in times of war you could get the death penalty. for that, yes sir, but it's true that he looks great and that's rule number one, rule number one in the army is to look cool, problem, come on man, we're running out of gas, let's land this sucker, okay, so the instruction for landing is that an Order, did you disobey an order to go up and help a fellow pilot?

I also don't know how to help another pilot of another plane, but that is a separate topic. You know he is committing at least two different crimes. Right now he is intentionally disobeying. an order from a superior officer to land that plane that is an order that they ordered you to land you have to land you are also unduly risking a plane the fuel is low and something is going to be done uh apparently give moral support yes, moral support no I don't know if He plans to eject from his plane to the other plane to maybe give him a back massage and help his friend, but either way it doesn't look good, so you're saying it's not standard operating procedure to fly a plane without fuel to deal with. of giving moral support to a rider who seems to be sick for some reason, you know, that's generally frowned upon, yeah, okay, so I know this, Tom Cruise, is riding a motorcycle really fast in California without a helmet. whatever a California vehicle code violation is, it might be petty, but it's a 250 fine and/or a year of probation, oh yeah, and I mean, these pilots are probably up in the tower saying who the hell If it's this random guy riding his motorcycle along the flight line shaking his fist at us, he'd at least get some research and besides, as someone who rides a motorcycle, I can't imagine typing without a helmet.

I know there are some states where you can ride a motorcycle without a helmet. First of all, it's pretty dangerous without a helmet, like you should wear a helmet because injuries to people who don't wear helmets are horrific and grotesque, but also if you're going really fast it's so windy that your aviator sunglasses won't do as much. , so if you value your life, please wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle, whether in California or anywhere else, please, I'm Charlotte Blackwood, I'm a hipster, a hipster, doesn't mom like you or something? No, it's my call sign. Okay, that's so embarrassing, that's so embarrassing, just don't do that, that's the most idiotic move in the world, what's going on here?

He's showing up on his call sign for us, I mean, that's so embarrassing, but it's also embarrassing. It's not realistic and the reason it's not realistic is because no one, no one, has a cool call sign like that hipster iceman. You don't get call signs like that. Every call sign is going to be something unique and weird about you or something you've done that's almost embarrassing and humiliating if you went somewhere and said I want my call sign to be nonconformist you'd probably be stunned to the point of death, no. do this, don't do this, but they had a connection, so I have no doubt in Maverick's mind that he has a special connection with this lady and that this was an invitation with her eyes for him to meet her at the ladies bathroom.

Let me put it this way, she's probably breaking at least three laws here, let's assume for a second that this poor woman had no intention of inviting Maverick into the ladies room, I think it's probably safe to say she did, so she's basically committing a couple of different crimes, a conduct upon becoming an officer or a gentleman, this is so basic, that is literally the text. of the statute conduct unbecoming of an officer or gentleman the only thing that needs to be shown is that he is doing something indecent, immoral, something bad, um, probably also detrimental to good order and discipline or has a tendency to bring the armed forces into disrepute, which is a violation of article 134. of the reported code of military justice yes well it sounds bad when you say it that way I mean he is in uniform on the base this type of behavior is really dangerous for him she has a PhD in astrophysics and she's also a civilian contractor so don't say hello to her but you better listen to her because the pentagon is listening to her about your competition it's all yours charlie thanks hi okay so is it realistic that Is there a civilian who is a kind of contractor who provides some help? training pilots in top gun I don't think it's unusual or I don't think it's so unusual that it's unrealistic we have civilian contractors everywhere in the military doing a wide variety of things and especially people who have specific training and experience like having a PhD in astrophysics, I'm sure they could be useful to some extent, we're probably not talking about tactics but the aerodynamics of the aircraft, things like that, I'm not sure astrophysics would help with aerodynamics, I think it was it's like astrophysics Ph.D. in astrophysics they said yes they said astrophysics so unless they are plotting graphs with the stars uh I'm not sure her PhD is going to help much I guess we assume she has a lot of other experiences in the private sector that led her to this experience, well, you know, it's possible.

I guess Top Gun 2 will actually be in space. Yes, in space. Welcome to the danger zone that is classified, that is what is classified. I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you, Lieutenant, I have top secret clearance, the Pentagon makes sure I know more than you, yeah, okay, then, I've never been in the military, but I have a lot of friends. who have science clearance and she might have that kind of clearance, but none of them necessarily have science clearance, so I don't think all of those pilots necessarily have the clearance to be able to hear what she just said she can.

I don't tell people without that particular clearance, I mean, yes, I would assume that all officers have secret clearance, at least that's fine, but getting tssci is actually something more unusual, it costs a lot of money, and in fact it has quite a bit of value in the private sector once you leave the military yeah I've heard I'll say this for everyone watching if you have a little bit of classified information that you can't tell anyone and a civilian just says oh okay I have security clearances Here, don't give them that classified information, uh, it's going to be a bad day for you if that person doesn't have that security clearance, no, no, man, this is not a good idea, sorry goose, but it's Time to touch the tower, damn son.

Okay, that seems, that seems super bad, yeah, as Maverick's defense attorney, I have to say that right now he needs to not say anything to anyone about what just happened, lock himself in a room and hope for the best, so yeah , that? Did he just commit a series of crimes there? I mean, honestly, this is one of those cases where they could rack up maybe five different charges. He certainly willfully disobeyed the order of a superior officer. There is another article in the UCMJ about drunks. or reckless operation of an aircraft uh there is another reckless danger there is other conduct upon becoming an officer and gentleman improperly risking an aircraft some of them could carry the death penalty the reality is that some of them would be more difficult to prove others would be easier one What he just did was disobey that order and that's a bad thing for him, yeah, it seems like in the military you have to follow orders, we follow orders or people die, you know, it's highly recommended and unfortunately in the real world.

Not only would he be punished, but he would probably lose his wings completely and spend the rest of his contract filling sandbags or doing something very menial in an office. Sounds good, that's because every time you go up in the air you're insecure I don't like you because you're dangerous, that's right, good man, I'm dangerous, that's what we call admission, uh, and unfortunately for him, it's absolutely true and it goes back to some of the reckless things he's been doing all this time. Again, as Maverick's defense attorney, I strongly recommend that you remain silent when it comes to this type of thing.

Okay, that reminds me of a certain fan theory about Top Gun, which is that Top Gun is actually a love story between two characters, not Tom Cruise. and kelly mcgillis, but rather tom cruise's character and val kilmer's character, the iceman, if say maverick and the iceman were not married but then decided to have a relationship with each other, that would violate any ucmj rule, so what it would probably violate would be a regulation that says that people who are in the same command cannot have intimate relationships, um now, yes because they are both in the best school, they are not allowed to have a relationship intimate just because of the way it could affect the school.command etc.

However, once they are out of Top Gun, as long as they are not in the same unit, they can have the most wonderful relationship they could ever wish for and I wish them the best. He could be my partner at any time, you know. story, I was actually a military prosecutor assigned to what is now marine corps air station miramar uh and I saw at least one pilot get prosecuted one pilot was completely fired from the marine corps he was a test pilot for a f- 35 and it was for adultery, they kicked him out for adultery, so I mean that's not a crime, uh, porcivils, that's a crime for service members, it absolutely is and it's actually a terribly common crime for members. of the service now, it's not, it's not enough that you had an affair when you're married or that you had an affair with someone who's married there. to be something additional it has to be detrimental to good or undisciplined or have a tendency to discredit the armed forces, but in cases of adultery they are not that difficult to prove, yes, I mean, why would adultery be something that the military?

It worries you, there are a lot of self-righteous prudes that are in the military, but the other part is that you can't really have people, especially in the same chain of command or on the same base, who are married and have affairs. with other people on the base, for example let's say you are a captain like Maverick, you are single but you decide to have an affair with someone who is married on the base and that person is a civilian but is married to another officer, for example. that can cause real tensions within the base within the command and that is detrimental to good order and discipline because you are introducing a lot of possibilities for angry recriminations, it is something you want to avoid completely sir, you had commander heather lee on The sight saw me coming in for the kill and then he went under the hard cover.

We weren't below 10,000 for more than a few seconds. I had the shot, there was no danger, so I took it, so here's the problem with this. What he did. going under the hard deck was a violation of the regulations, but let's also talk about what the hard deck actually meant in this context, yeah, what does that mean? The hard pad simulates the ground, so when you say you went under the hard pad for just a few seconds, that's like saying on your plane that you went under the ground for a couple of seconds, that the hard pad is there for safety. of all, so that you have plenty of cushioning space in a training environment and so that he is only under her for a couple of seconds.

You know, I'm sure the plane will be fine under the California desert for a couple of seconds, it's a plane and a submarine, that's how good we are, we're getting there guys, the SS Layton comm chip has been disabled and has wandered abroad. In the territory, a rescue operation must begin within an hour. Your mission is to provide air support to that rescue, so this is a bit of a complicated setup. Obviously, tensions are high and there is a possibility of war or some type of hostile act here. In fact, we're going to see combat now, we have to assume that what that means in the movie is that this ship has moved into what are called territorial waters.

The territorial waters of any country in the ocean extends about 12 miles, but due to the law of At sea there is an exception to what is called innocent passage, so what innocent passage means is that if another ship passes by and everything What it does is go to port or cross those territorial waters for innocent reasons, so you can't just attack it. it's not an invasion of the country or anything like that, now what they can do of course is to police their territorial waters so that someone comes in through an innocent passage, you can board them, you can search them, you can do a variety of things to do I'm sure that it is actually an innocent step, so the problem is that while there is an innocent step in the sea, there is no such thing as an innocent step in the air; the moment an American fighter jet enters the airspace over another country's territorial waters, that could very clearly be seen as an act of war oh well, that complicates things a lot, I think so, yes, so What you're saying is that the American planes are entering a danger zone, a kind of danger zone that they are actually entering. danger zone danger, okay, so we've already talked about how egregious the tower buzz violation is in Miramar, uh, assuming they didn't run out of rail, what would happen if they buzzed a tower again after having been reprimanded the first time? no good time in fact very, very bad things um I think it's safe to say that at this point Maverick is not only going to be stripped of his wings but he's probably going to be fired from the service and also, um we're at war now that this unnamed country has shot down an American plane.

I think by all reasonable accounts that means we are at war with this country. It seems like a really bad time to absolutely brag and the reality is that I want to say yes. A little bit later in this movie we're going to find out that this other country is going to decide that, hey, it's no big deal, but we don't know that right now everyone on this aircraft carrier has to assume that we're at war with this country right now and, however we're doing a flyby yeah yeah so yeah that seems bad suboptimal somewhere there's a navy chief petty officer screaming and sobbing into a pillow the fact that we're at war right now or at least We have to assume that we're at war and the entire deck crew is abandoning their posts and running to celebrate these guys when for all we know there are a bunch of other migs heading straight for this carrier, I mean these people They need to be in their positions that they need to be. to be retro, like they need to refuel, overhaul these planes, they need to have combat air patrols and instead everyone is having the time of their lives.

I don't even know what to say. I don't even know. what to say yeah it looks like they just won a college football game yeah I mean they definitely just scored a touchdown unfortunately we might have nukes in the other end zone okay Spencer now we have To tell all the crimes, how long does Tom Cruise last? Maverick will go to jail, let me put it this way, if we are in fact at war he will probably receive the death penalty, if we are not at war he will probably receive, say, three to four years in prison and a dismissal from the armed forces and a 250 fee for not wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle that really is the knife twisting isn't it Spencer?

You can be my partner at any time. No, Devin, you can be mine. You two characters are going to be the best. So the navy is going to fire Maverick or I guess they could hang him on a pole, but this is America so he'll probably just sue to get his job back and he could really benefit from my feature-length master course on nebula classes. It's called how to sue like a lawyer. I would take you through the legal process step by step in a fun and entertaining way, you know in case you ever need to sue someone or are just curious about how that all works and not only. that, but I have another class called copyright for fun and profit, it explains everything you ever wanted to know about copyright and intellectual property, whether you are a creator artist or a student, because today's sponsor nebula classes They are a brand new part of Nebula, the creator-owned streaming platform. that I'm building with a group of my maker friends, each class is incredibly well produced and entertaining.

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