CAPT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell: Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Candidate #1

In the 131 minutes you dedicate to watching the highly anticipated movie Top Gun: Maverick this Memorial Day weekend, two veterans will take their own lives.

Estimates show that between 17 and 22 veterans take their own lives each day. Suicide rates among activity duty, Reserve, and Guard members are not included in these estimates.

Last month, three active duty sailors aboard the U.S.S. George Washington (GW) died by apparent suicide. In the past year, two additional sailors aboard the same aircraft carrier took their own lives. Three additional deaths aboard the GW are under investigation.

Make no mistake, our military is not immune to the national mental health crisis as more than 85% of our fighting force is exposed to potentially traumatizing events. For military leaders, the escalating mental health crisis is about the preservation of the fighting force and is a threat to our national security.

To help remove the stigma associated with mental health and to treat the soul wound of moral injury, our nation’s mavericks—those military leaders who are known for challenging the status quo and thinking differently—must take on this critical mission: The Mission Within.

CAPT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, the most recognizable naval aviator on the planet, is perfectly suited for this mission as his life experiences provide both common and uncommon examples of events that can contribute to mental and neurological post-trauma syndromes such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), anxiety, addiction, and depression.

Using CAPT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s story, I hope I can help bring awareness to the mental health crisis plaguing our nation’s past and present warfighters, and re-orient decision-makers towards the so-called Psychedelic Renaissance that is helping thousands of veterans heal from their psychological injuries.

Disclaimer. This post is for awareness only. I am not advocating the recreational use of Schedule 1 Substances. ?

If you are having thoughts about suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800-273-8255). For military members, please contact the Veterans Crisis Line (800-273-8255 press 1). For veterans who want to learn more about psychedelic-assisted therapy, please contact VETS or the Heroic Hearts Project.

Part 1: The Known Trauma of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell?

When Pete Mitchell was a young boy, his father, a U.S. Navy F-4 Phantom II fighter pilot, disappeared behind enemy lines, never to be seen again. Growing up, Pete dreamed about following in his father’s footsteps and applied to but was rejected by the U.S. Naval Academy. Pete persevered and gained a commission in the U.S. Navy through an alternative commissioning source.

Before she could pin his Wings of Gold onto his Service Dress White uniform, or learn about the nature of her son’s callsign, “Maverick”—a callsign fit for an independent person whose ego (sense of self) is known to others as being large and even problematic—Pete’s mother passed away.

At sea with his new family, an F-14 fighter squadron aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, the cadence of accountability known as Plan-Brief-Execute-Debrief (PBED) helped “Maverick” and his squadron mates focus their attention on the present and develop the “Hive-Mind” needed to achieve peak performance in the two-seat F-14. Life as a fighter pilot aboard a forward-deployed aircraft carrier provided solace to “Maverick,” a place where he could escape from the trauma of his past, including a failed relationship with Penny Benjamin, an admiral’s daughter.

During a routine mission somewhere over the Indian Ocean, LT “Maverick” Mitchell, his wingman, LT Bill “Cougar” Cortell, and their respective Radar Intercept Officers (RIOs) were involved in a once-in-a-lifetime, air-to-air engagement with enemy MiG-28s. To “Cougar,” a husband and father, this event triggered an elevated stress and anxiety response that contributed to a cut pass (unsafe landing aboard a carrier) and, before the mission debrief, his decision to turn in his wings.

“Maverick” and the two RIOs involved in the incident did not share the same emotions or personal response to the event as “Cougar.” In fact, after the incident, CDR “Stinger” Jardian, the Commander, Air Group (CAG)?pointed out to “Maverick” that his ego was "writing checks your body can’t cash,” a respectful warning to the young Navy LT about the dangers of hiding behind a growing ego—part of the default mode of the human brain that represses the post-trauma syndrome healing process.

During a training hop while attending the prestigious Navy Fighter Weapons School (aka TOPGUN), “Maverick’s” best friend, LTJG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, a father and a husband, was killed when the crew ejected out of an uncontrollable F-14 flat spin. Physically, the ejection may have left “Maverick” with a traumatic brain injury (TBI)—a physical brain injury known to lead to anxiety, depression and PTSD.?Mentally, as the survivor of this life-threatening event, “Maverick” experienced survivor’s guilt, blaming himself for the mishap and the death of his best friend.

Upon review, the Navy mishap and JAG investigations found that “Maverick” did everything he could and was not responsible for the mishap; “Maverick” was cleared back to flying status without psychological counseling or follow-on support.?

To be good at his job, “Maverick” must push his body to the edge of consciousness, straining against G-forces that make his body weigh eight to nine times its normal weight while reducing the blood flow to his brain. When launching from a carrier, catapulting from zero to 160 MPH in two seconds, “Maverick’s” vestibular system is designed to “trick” his brain into thinking he is going straight up when he was actually accelerating straight and level—a life-threatening hallucination or illusion when launching from the carrier at night. ?

When landing on a carrier, “Maverick” must perform a controlled crash where his aircraft hits the angled and moving carrier flight deck at three times the force of gravity. In “Maverick’s” line of work it is known that this repetitive exposure to high Gs accelerates the progression of degenerative spinal disease.

The physical toll on the body from flying is one thing. The mental toll from stress and anxiety of his job are another.

One of the most stressful events in “Maverick’s” life is landing on an aircraft carrier at night. In fact, a study conducted during the Vietnam War found that night landings on aircraft carriers are more stressful than what ground troops experience in combat. Pete and naval aviators like him are required to land on carriers at night, repeatedly, sometimes more than 400 times over the span of their careers.

Conditioned not to self-medicate, “Maverick”, and all naval aviators, live in a culture where their physical health is constantly monitored by squadron mates, flight surgeons, and the health professional assigned to their squadrons.?But this “culture of health” often conflicts with the individual’s “need for speed”—a burning desire to fly.?As a result, naval aviators often suppress physical health ailments, favoring self-medication over self-reporting—an unintended consequence of naval aviation culture.

When it comes to mental health, the culture of naval aviation favors zero tolerance over the acceptance of moral injury.

Stressed? Just add alcohol.

Naval aviation has been described as crawling into a bottle when you are in your early 20s and crawling out when you are in your mid 40s. For “Maverick” and his naval aviation brothers and sisters, alcohol is the stress reliever of choice. Available on any base, found in any port of call, and restricted while underway, alcohol is the worst drug aviators can put in their body as it degrades G-tolerance and increases the risk of health problems such as liver disease and cancer.

To fly, Pete and all aviators including commercial pilots have to live by a “bottle-to-throttle” rule which states that they must stop drinking at least 12 hours before they fly and be free from the effects of alcohol. This rule, like the rule on self-medication, is often in conflict with the culture of naval aviation.

When tensions flare up around the world, the first question that comes up in the White House is, “Where’s the nearest aircraft carrier?”?When “Maverick” finished his TOPGUN syllabus, he was sent back to his deployed squadron aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, the nearest carrier to an emerging crisis. ??

Still clouded from the death of his best friend “Goose," “Maverick” was back in a high stress, volatile environment where he and his new RIO were placed in a Ready Five status—a condition in which his armed Tomcat is ready to launch within five minutes to intercept incoming threats. Aware that one of the airwing’s F-14s was shot down and the other was engaged with several MiG-28s, “Maverick” pushed the throttles of his F-14 to zone five, got airborne, and within a few minutes was in the midst of a dogfight with several MiG-28s.

During this high threat mission, “Maverick” found a way to compartmentalize, putting the trauma of his past behind him to focus on the task at hand: defending the fleet from enemy MiGs. Pulling Gs, dodging bullets, and out-maneuvering air-to-air missiles, “Maverick” and his RIO shot down three enemy MiGs, presumably killing three or more enemy combatants. Every newspaper in the free world covered this event and “Maverick” became a national hero and arguably the most famous naval aviator of all time.

These events in Pete’s life happened before he turned 30 years old. Three decades have passed since the world was introduced to the story of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Today, we know he still wears a Navy uniform and has been passed up for promotion several times while members of his peer group have achieved flag rank. We also know he will have to train and fly with Bradley Bradshaw, “Goose's” son. As for his personal life, it is safe to assume that “Maverick” has a history of failed relationships—not uncommon considering his line of work has one of the highest divorce rates in the nation.

CAPT Mitchell’s service as a naval aviator spans over three decades, a period that covers a time where Navy Tailhookers (carrier based aviators) served in combat operations over the skies of Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. But unlike other Tailhookers who served in combat or share some of the common life experiences as “Maverick,” when Pete Mitchell decides to step out of the U.S. Navy he will not have to worry about:

• Suffering from anxiety or depression
• Having suicidal thoughts as a result of PTSD or TBI
• Becoming addicted to drugs
• Getting cancer from radiation
• Becoming homeless
• Becoming an alcoholic
• The side effects of the pharmacology cocktail prescribed by the Veterans Administration (VA)
• How to escape from the VA ?
• Having an anxiety attack in a parking lot
• The damage benzodiazepines have on his brain.

Why does he not have to worry about life after the Navy? Because Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is a fictional character, of course. If he was real, his next story would likely be about overcoming the moral injury associated with his childhood and military service. As he is a maverick, this would undoubtably include the use of psychedelic-assisted therapy.

For those real TOPGUNs who do suffer from moral injury, “Maverick’s” story and the stories around him provide a canvas from which we can examine how trauma affects our OODA loop (how we make sense, decide, and act in the world) and how psychedelic assisted therapy is changing the lives of those former and real TOPGUNs who suffered from addiction, PTSD, depression, TBI, and other mental health disorders related to their service.

In the Part II, I will connect Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s story to Boyd’s OODA loop, specifically how trauma affects Orientation. This section will dive into the role genetics, previous experiences, and culture have on post trauma syndromes. ?

The next section will look at what I call the Entropic OODA loop, a blending of Boyd’s OODA loop with the Entropic Brain Hypothesis, REBUS and the Anarchic Brain, and how reality is a controlled hallucination.

In Part IV, I will use the OODA loop to explain how the default mode network is suppressed under psychedelics and what’s behind ego dissolution.

In Part V, I will introduce you to some real TOPGUNs who suffered from drug addiction, PTSD, TBI, depression, and anxiety, and have had their lives changed as they traveled out of country to seek psychedelic-assisted therapy.

Brian “Ponch” Rivera is former F-14 Demonstration Team Member, F-14 Instructor, and a current Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve. As a civilian, “Ponch” is a co-author and co-creator of The Flow System, co-founder of The Flow Consortium, co-founder of AGLX Consulting, co-creator of High-Performance Teaming, creator of ZONEFIVE, and a “No Fallen Heroes” Angel Investor. He is a TEDx speaker and the co-author of the Amazon International Best Seller, Strength and Gratitude.

F-14D PTID image courtesy of TJ Flora.