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Mike Drop
Mike Drop

Inside Top Gun: The ELITE Training That Pushes Pilots Past Limits | Ep. 267 | Pt. 1

25 November 2025 1:26:45 Mike Ritland

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About this episode

Join host Mike Ritland for an unforgettable conversation with Dave Berke – the only Marine in history to fly the F-16, F-18, F-22, and F-35, a legendary TOPGUN instructor, former Forward Air Controller attached to Jocko Willink’s Task Unit Bruiser in Ramadi 2006, and co-author of the Extreme Ownership series. From the cockpit of the world’s most advanced fighters to the blood-soaked streets of Ramadi alongside SEALs, Dave pulls zero punches on what real high-performance leadership looks like when lives are on the line.

In this nearly 4-hour deep dive, Dave reveals the brutal debrief culture at TOPGUN that turned good pilots into lethal ones, why the peacetime military he first joined in 2001 was nowhere near ready for war, how 9/11 instantly transformed training forever, and the life-changing moment he left the world’s premier fighter-weapons school to volunteer for ground combat in the deadliest city in Iraq. He also shares his unfiltered take on AI ending the era of the single-seat fighter pilot within our lifetime and the raw lessons that still keep him up at night from Ramadi.

Whether you’re obsessed with fighter aviation, extreme ownership, or what it really takes to lead when failure isn’t an option, this is one of the most powerful veteran-to-veteran conversations you’ll ever hear.

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