"I couldn't put Dave Baranek's book down—he put me right in the cockpit of his aircraft and made me feel like I was a Navy RIO running intercepts on bad guys. Dave wanted to be a pilot; so did I, but our eyesight wasn’t quite good enough, so we both chose to become backseaters. It doesn't matter where you sit in a fighter or bomber or reconnaissance plane—it's all about flying; military flying; taking planes to the edge of the envelope. It's about tough training and besting the bad guys if and when you meet up with them. In Before Topgun Days Dave takes you from the day he reports to NAS Pensacola as an utter novice until he straps on an F-14 Tomcat and flies with a carrier at sea. What I liked best about the book is being part of his demanding training—day by day, event by event. I love the book. This is an aviator's book—for anyone who loves to reach for the sky." —Wolfgang W Samuel, Colonel, USAF (Ret.), author of German Boy and In Defense of Freedom

"Baranek describes a relatively little-known area of Navy flight training, that of the F-14 radar intercept officer or RIO, the guy-in-the-back, as skilled as his pilot up front but not as familiar to the average reader of modern aviation literature. Only someone who has actually experienced the demanding instruction required to earn this unique position in a flight crew, followed by the months of deployments in the fleet in a combat-ready F-14 squadron, could hope to tell this story in such deeply personal detail. As one who tried but failed, I found myself filling in many of the blanks as I read this lively adventure story. Great job, Bio!" —Peter Mersky, author of Whitey, F-8 vs. MiG-17, and US Marine Corps Aviation since 1912