SEQ CHAPTER h r 1I DREAM OF JEANNIE - THE PREQUEL:
THE STORY OF TONY, ROGER AND JEANNIE
by CAJeannieFan57/Donna
with story assistance from OneOfRoger'sGirls/Jeni
CHAPTER 1 - TONY - THE COLLEGE DAYS
Two more weeks. As he rounded the corner walking towards his fraternity house, Tony realized that he only had two more weeks left of his college career. It had gone by pretty quickly. After graduating from high school in Fowlers Corners, Ohio, Tony had decided to attend college a little further from home, at Ohio State University in Columbus. It was a good way to get a little distance from his old high school sweetheart, Bonnie Crenshaw, who wanted to get married. He didn't - he had a lot of plans and marriage wasn't one of them, for a LONG time.
Majoring in geological sciences at OSU, he hadn't had much time for fun there either. His class schedule was grueling - class upon class in mathematics and all areas of science, but especially geology. Every night he would go back to the fraternity house, have a snack, and hit the books. Occasionally he'd go out with a girl or two, but no one really interested him. He slept with one or two of them, just to make sure that he knew he was all man. He found out that he was definitely a man, but just hadn't found the right girl yet.
Periodically he would go home to visit his parents and his little sister Tracy. His mother always had an arsenal of girls ready to make a date while he was home, and it was all he could do to resist most of them. Most of the girls were very pretty, but didn't seem to have a brain in their heads. As for Bonnie, she moved away after his freshman year and he didn't have to deal with that strain when he got home. Thank goodness! His little sister was also picking on him. She had friends with big sisters who weren't married, weren't dating, and usually were dogs, at least compared to the girls his mother found for him.
Even his best friend Michael from high school days would try to get him to date various girls. Michael had gone to trade school and then gotten drafted for a couple of years. He came back from Korea none the worse for wear, but with a ton of stories and an appreciation for the female anatomy that surprised Tony, because Michael hadn't been that girl-crazy through high school. So when Michael and Tony came home on the same weekend, inevitably, Michael had set them up on a double-blind date.
Arriving at the fraternity house, he found his college best friend and frat brother Doug waiting for him in their shared room.
"Have I got a girl for you," Doug said. "She's gorgeous. 36-26-34 ... stacked ... blond .. And she's majoring in biological sciences, so she's brainy too."
"Have you forgotten? We graduate in two weeks. Next week are finals. I have to study or I won't pass that last class in geology. If I don't pass, no degree. No degree, and I can't do what I want to do next," Tony stated definitely.
"Yeah, what you want to do next. I can't believe you, Nelson! What do you want to join the military service for? Most guys our age tried going into college to AVOID military service, the draft, man, and the Korean war!" Doug moaned.
"I can't afford to do it any other way. I wanna fly, and the only way I'm gonna learn to fly is through the military. Eisenhower just created that astronauts corps, and I want in. Now, while it's close to the ground floor," Tony informed him. "So I don't really have time to go out with a girl right now."
"Tony, it's only one date. Tonight. I promise you, if you're bored by her, or you want to go home, I'll help you make excuses. I'll even drive."
"Well, you'll have to, since I don't own a car at the moment. All right. You've got a deal. But tomorrow, you leave me strictly alone. That book of mine is calling me to study."
"Deal, Nelson."
Tony went out with Doug, his girlfriend Tina, and the blond gal named Sophie. Doug was right, Sophie was a knockout. Doug and Tina dropped Tony and Sophie off at Sophie's apartment, where she gave him a little sex-education - right down to lace underwear. But still it left a bad feeling for him. It just wasn't right. Sophie was not the right girl. Someday he would find the right girl, and it would mean something for him.
In the end, Tony passed all of his senior second semester finals with "As", which surprised him. While still studying for those grueling exams, he visited every military officer recruiting station in Columbus, and talked to a lot of people in Washington, DC, on the telephone. Though all the services made him great offers, based on his high achievement and his scientific background, the best offer was the Air Force.
The Air Force offered him the highest starting rank of all, Captain, and the shortest time in Officer Training. More importantly, they offered him flight school pending a successful physical, which would take place two days after his college graduation ceremony. He tried the title on for size: Captain Anthony Nelson. It sounded good, so that's the way he was going to go.
Tony's mother, father, and sister Tracy, who was 16 years old and a beautiful teenager, came to OSU for the graduation ceremony. It would take place on a Saturday morning on the practice football field, with only the College of Mathematics and Physical Sciences graduates there. He found himself sitting in the Summa Cum Laude section when he thought that one grade in Calculus was going to put him just down in Cum Laude, so he was happy. Sitting on the field in cap and gown, he looked up and saw his family trying to find him. Tracy was easy to spot. Dark brown hair, looking a little like him, but one of the younger people in the audience. Doug had seen Tracy and whistled when he first saw her. Tony, the protective big brother, told him to back off, that was jail-bait and he better not forget it.
Three days later, Tony found himself in Officers' Candidate School, learning the in's and out's of being a military officer, Air Force terminology, doing physical exercises twice a day for a half hour and a morning jog around the track every day, and taking classes again in mathematics, sciences, and written English. Some of the other men were attending classes in foreign languages, but Tony did not learn languages easily. Instead, he was sent to classes in aircraft history and engineering. He wondered if he'd made a mistake, not taking any engineering classes in college.
While there, he had liberty once a week and managed to go out with a different female officer candidate each time. There weren't that many women officer candidates to choose from, as this was 1961 and most girls were finding careers elsewhere. The ones that were there could compete with Tony intellectually and he found them challenging to talk to. His OCS roommate, Frank, managed to bed some of them down, but Tony wasn't interested in trying. He spent time talking to one girl, Thalia, about the merits of flying F-5's vs. some of the older aircraft. Frank thought he was nuts. When Tony thought about it, maybe he WAS nuts. Thalia wanted to go to Flight School, but females weren't being accepted yet. Maybe someday, she hoped.
Flight school was everything Tony wanted it to be, and then some. The only thing he couldn't stand was the barracks that he had to live in. Throughout college and OCS, he had roomed with only one or two other people, and that was enough. To share the same room and a group bathroom with 11 other men was going to drive him nuts. Fortunately flight school was only a few weeks. If he passed it successfully, he wanted to apply to Top Gun. Top Gun was the top military flight school for advanced pilots. Only the best pilots got in. If he could get into Top Gun, it would almost assure the next step: a successful application to the astronaut training program.
Tony passed Flight School and was recommended for Top Gun. He was sent to San Diego for training and hardly saw anything of San Diego. For all practical purposes, Tony felt that when he left San Diego, he'd never been there. The only thing he saw of San Diego was the inside of classrooms at Naval Air Station Miramar, another barracks, the tarmac, the inside of various aircraft, and occasionally the galley. It seemed strange to be eating with men in Navy blue uniforms instead of the lighter blue of the U.S. Air Force, but occasionally he'd see an Air Force uniform, and even a green U.S. Army uniform.
It was at Top Gun where Tony met a man who would have substantial influence on the rest of his Air Force career, though he wouldn't know it yet. Attending Top Gun school as a candidate from the US Army Air Corps, Corps of Engineers, was one Captain Roger Healey. The two men, opposites as they could be, became friends the second day of Top Gun school.
CHAPTER 2 - ROGER - THE COLLEGE YEARS
Walking down the street in Greenwich towards the tiny brownstone that he shared with five other college guys, Roger Healey debated his future. He'd spent five years at Columbia University. At first he tried pre-law, but found that subject to be so dry. His physical science class, required for graduation by all Columbia students, interested him so much that the professor suggested he take another science class the following semester. By the end of his freshman year, Roger decided to major in Engineering and was taking everything he could possibly take in the math and sciences department. He tried to avoid the English and language classes - he was slightly dyslexic and all those words bugged him. He enjoyed speech class, however, because he found himself peppering all of his speeches with jokes and one-liners. His reputation as the class clown in grammar and high school had not preceded him here, but he made a new reputation. Whenever someone needed a laugh or to feel perkier, they went to see Roger Healey. And that included women by the score.
Despite his grueling academic schedule, Roger managed to date a different girl at least four times a week. Most invited him over to their little apartments and flats for dinner, which he appreciated since he didn't have to find the cash to take them out to dinner. He was attending Columbia on a full-ride scholarship and didn't have a lot of extra cash. Sometimes the dinner ended with a visit to the girl's bedroom, but sometimes it didn't.
Roger's dad, Michael, had died when he was in junior high school, a trucking accident on the highway. His father was a long-distance trucker and the truck had gone over the side when he fell asleep trying to drive too long. Roger's mother tried her best to give her one and only son an education, but mostly it was up to Roger. He almost gave up in his senior year of high school and married a hometown girl instead, but when the Columbia scholarship came through, he couldn't give up on his one dream of flying a plane. The Draft was also rearing down his neck, and while the military wasn't a bad idea, he didn't think much of the Korean War. So college was a good choice.
Seeing the picture of his dad's truck after the accident, Roger decided that the only way he really wanted to travel was in the air. Planes and jets were becoming popular ways of vacation travel. He couldn't decide if he wanted to be a commercial plane pilot, or join the military. Then the call came. He saw President Eisenhower on the television in his brownstone, talking about the astronaut corps and how it would be expanding in the next few years to accommodate all the exploration of space that the Americans wanted to do. It suddenly hit him right then what he wanted to do. He wanted to fly in the military, because that would be The Ticket to the astronaut corps.
Did he have the grades to do it? That, he wasn't sure of. He managed to keep his grade average to keep the scholarship going every year, but he wasn't sure if those grades would "make the grade" for the astronaut corps, or even flight school before that. Suddenly he spent a little more time studying, and a tad less time with girls, trying to get his grade average up. If only he could improve his grades in the required English courses that he had to take!
In the end, he found a little blond number who was willing to help him with his English class homework. She was an elementary education major who had just taken a class in learning disabilities, and taught him some strategies to help him over the dyslexia that had driven him crazy all the way through grammar and high school. He was so grateful to that little gal, Janice. She was so grateful to him for giving her practice, that she gave him her virginity - and he almost thought he was going to become a father when she brought to him a little problem two months later. Fortunately, it turned out that she wasn't pregnant. He was relieved - fatherhood was not the key to the astronaut corps that he needed at this point.
Just before graduating, he visited the officer recruiting offices located on the campus of Columbia University. He talked to the Air Force, who weren't really thrilled about his grades. Then to the Navy, who would have put him on an aircraft carrier the next week, headed for the shores off Korea, as a peacekeeping gesture. The last ones he talked to were the Army people, who took one look at his engineering background and referred him to the Army Corps of Engineers. They, in turn, told him that they not only had room for him in their program, but they would give him the rank of Captain, immediately salaried, officer training school, and flight school. If he passed flight school with a certain grade, he could be admitted to Top Gun. That would possibly get him into the astronaut corps, despite his less than perfect grades in college.
Since his mother was unable to come to New York City for the graduation ceremony, which was pretty big anyway, Roger decided to skip it. He picked up his degree at the Records Office the next morning, instead. His graduation evening was spent in the company of one bosomy redhead named Candy. She was experienced and all over Roger - but there wasn't a brain in her head. He shrugged, brains weren't what he was after at the moment, anyway.
Two days after graduation, on a Monday morning, he found himself at the Armed Forces Center in New York City, getting the most thorough physical he'd ever had in his life. He trekked down hallways wearing only his boxer shorts, getting poked and prodded in every area of his body. Then going in chambers smaller than an outhouse, with earphones on trying to hear sounds that must only be heard by dogs. Then standing in huge rooms trying to read eye charts 50 feet away. The toughest part of that one was that darned chart with the E's turned in various directions. He quietly explained to the doctor that he was dyslexic, the doctor wrote it on his chart and then gave him a letter and number chart instead. The only tough part of that were b's and d's, but Janice's techniques had helped him there. The doctor didn't think his dyslexia would keep him out of officer training or flight school, so he was relieved. When he went back to the brownstone the next night, he had papers and a bus ticket to Officer Candidate School, to leave in a week.
He had one week to sell what little furniture he had, send some stuff home to his mother in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and see all the girls that he wanted to say goodbye to. When he left for OCS, he had a black book with 100 names and phone numbers all over the country. No matter where he'd get stationed, he'd have a girl somewhere nearby. And he planned to add to that little book as he went.
At OCS he had no time to breathe. He was either in class, in the gym or on the physical fitness blacktop, eating, sleeping, or studying. There were a few evenings of liberty, but not knowing any girls, he went to the local bars and headed for the pick-ups. Roger wasn't much on paying for female entertainment, and by the second liberty evening, he had found out where the singles bars were and headed for those. Each of the successive five liberty evenings were spent with a girl picked up in one of those bars. He scored twice, and struck out the rest of the time.
Roger's buddy at OCS was another engineer named Rich. Roger was quite surprised that they got along as well as they did, as they were the exact opposites. Rich was one of those straight A students, girls were friends and maybe a date or two but not for bedding down until later in the relationship, and was aiming for a career as a Construction Engineer. Rich hoped to be working on some of the Army Corps of Engineer projects along the Tennessee Valley Authority, the area of his hometown. He thought flight was something for birds, not people. But yet, Roger could really talk to Rich, and he would listen - and Rich would talk, while Roger listened. Roger learned a lot from Rich. The best thing they did together, though, was study. Rich had strategies for remembering formulas and facts that he shared with Roger - extending the knowledge that Janice had helped him with.
Flight school was next on the schedule, and Roger's grades in OCS were good enough to get him in. It was everything he'd hoped it would be and then some. The classes weren't exactly his favorite part, but again, he found a study buddy similar to Rich who helped him remember things. Roger was a learn-by-doing person, and the more he could put into practice in simulators and in the air what he'd learned in the classroom, the better he was. The instructor took him aside after a couple of weeks and asked him about his dyslexia. "It doesn't even show!" That remark kept Roger going through the rest of flight school and he knew he would remember it into Top Gun, if he could get recommended for that.
On the final day of Flight School, Captain Healey was required to fly solo and perform basic maneuvers and three intermediate maneuvers. He performed all perfectly, so his instructors asked him if there were any advanced maneuvers he wanted to attempt. He told them exactly what he wanted and was prepared to do, and they gave him permission. Rolling the plane completely 360 degrees once, and then rolling it the opposite direction 360 degrees almost immediately following, the instructors were impressed. They gave him the orders to Top Gun in San Diego, Naval Air Station Miramar.
That night he spent the night tying one on at a singles bar in town in celebration. He met a girl named Terri, and followed her home. She fed him dinner, dessert, and for a final dessert ... took him to her bedroom. It was a wonderful night of celebration.
Roger regretted the late night when the flight instructors rousted him out of bed at 4:00 a.m. and said his flight to San Diego was in 2 hours. He had a pounding hangover, but he couldn't let the flight instructor know it. He dragged himself down to the Terminal with his flight bag full of uniforms and jumpsuits, and got on that plane bound for NAS Miramar.
At Top Gun, he was in a barracks with eleven other men - the entire class at Top Gun. There were six Navy uniforms, four Air Force, one regular Army Air Corps, and Roger, Army Corps of Engineers. Every single one of them had been top man in flight school, but their flight schools had been all over the map and at various times. Most of the men talked about wanting to be ace pilots for their respective services, but only two others had the same aspirations that he had. One was Tony Nelson, and the other, Pete Conway. Both had, like him, obtained the application for the astronaut corps, and were fighting for the designation of top pilot at Top Gun. Other than those qualities, though, the three were as different as night, day, and moonlight.
CHAPTER 3 - JEANNIE - BEFORE THE BOTTLE
Jeannie, who was then known as Fawzia al Babilonia, was a teenaged girl enjoying a free and easy lifestyle. She could have anything she wanted. Her mother, Fatima, and her father, Fazi, were both djinn. Normally, the offspring of two djinn was a djinn, but at birth, Fawzia showed no signs of being a djinni. Her older brother, Demir, and her younger brother, Bemir, were both djinn. Her sisters, Fashka and Kashmir, were both djinni. Fawzia appeared to be the black-sheep of the family, or perhaps just a late bloomer. The rest of the offspring all developed powers before they were two years old, by human standards.
Physically, though, Fawzia was anything but a late bloomer. A blond from birth, she had a womanly figure by the age of 13 and attracted the attention of every djinn in old Babylon. If mother Fatima had allowed her to date, Fawzia could have had a different date every night. But her mother and father were very conservative, and every man that wanted to take out Fawzia al Babilonia, had to pass inspection that included one hour of conversation alone with her parents. At that rate, the teenaged Fawzia thought, she'd be lucky to get married by age 40. Because very few of the men passed inspection.
When the Blue Djinn of Teheran came calling on her parents, to ask them for permission to date their daughter, Fawzia thought that her parents were going to do everything including worship the man. It was obvious to Fawzia exactly how much her parents liked this man, who was at least 30 years older than her, in human terms, and not particularly good looking. She knew, however, that he was a djinn, and a very powerful one at that. Her parents insisted that Fawzia go out with him, so she had no choice.
Blue Djinn took her to some of the hottest night spots in Babilonia, and then spirited her off to his home city of Teheran to do some of the hot night spots there. By the end of the evening, Fawzia had had enough. He was uncouth and was the exact opposite of the polite, conservative man that he had displayed for her parents. He kept her going until she was exhausted, and then his hands began to explore portions of her that she knew should be off limits to any man - or djinn - before marriage. Fawzia insisted that the Blue Djinn take her home, and he surprised her by doing just that.
Two nights later, however, he was back at her parents' doorstep, with plans to take Fawzia to the Djinn Ball. The Blue Djinn had not told her of his plans, so she was not dressed properly. Her mother took pity on her and blinked her into the proper dress for the Ball, which they were also planning to attend. While at the Ball, Fawzia stuck close by her parents, and her mother asked her why.
"The Blue Djinn does not interest me, Mama. He is uncouth, not a gentleman at all. I would prefer your company or that of my own self, to that of the Blue Djinn," Fawzia stated, uncomfortably since the Blue Djinn was staring at her from afar.
"I believe he is going to ask you to marry him," Mama stated. "I think you would do yourself a favor by accepting his proposal."
"That, Mama," Fawzia growled, "would be the worst mistake of my life."
"Daughter, I think turning down his proposal may be the worst mistake of your life," Mama warned.
This was in 50 B.C., a time of struggle within the Persian community of Babylon. At 14, Fawzia was aware of the struggles, but she was about to have a struggle of her own.
Three nights after the Djinn Ball, the Blue Djinn came calling upon Fawzia al Babilonia. Dressed in his finest djinn attire, showing off his smooth, sinewy human form, he first asked to speak with Fatima and Fazi al Babilonia in private. Fawzia and her two sisters were sent up to their rooms during this private discussion.
Fashka had her own take on the conversation, and what Fawzia should do about it. Being a little older than Fawzia, but almost identical to her in form except for hair color (brown vs. Fawzia's blond locks), she had already had three proposals. She was engaged to one of three, an older djinn named Ahmed. Her wedding was three weeks hence, and she was excited about it. She felt that Fawzia should accept the proposal of the Blue Djinn, as "he has money and power - so MUCH power, dah-ling, that you can have ANY-thing you want."
Kashmir tended to agree with Fawzia: the Blue Djinn was bad news and to be avoided at all costs. Kashmir was several years younger, and not ready to date yet, but said that the last type of djinn she would be interested in would be the Blue Djinn type.
Fawzia was called downstairs, but before she went, her mother blinked her into one of her best harem outfits. Fatima thought that if Fawzia at least looked like a djinni, it might make the goods more pleasing to the Blue Djinn. Fawzia would have preferred an old pair of Persian military fatigues - anything to make her less desirable to the Blue Djinn.
Going downstairs in this harem outfit, Fawzia laid eyes on the Blue Djinn in his best djinn outfit. It was all she could do not to turn from him in disgust. She loathed this djinn and said to herself, "If I had any powers right now, I would like to blink him away!" She blinked, but nothing happened. She tried rephrasing it, "I WISH he would go away!" But still, nothing happened. The Blue Djinn stayed at the doorway and she was obliged to go out with him.
The Blue Djinn took Fawzia for a walk on the beach. The beach happened to be one of Fawzia's favorite places in the entire world, even if it was just a river that ran through town. She tried to think of a favorite trip to the beach along the Persian Gulf, a few months before, that her family had taken. It took the sting off of the company she had to keep.
Once at the beach, the Blue Djinn took her into his big arms - he was about a foot and a half taller than she, and much bigger around. When he hugged her, it scared her. It scared her even more when he kissed her. She had never been kissed by a man before, other than her father, and this was definitely not a fatherly kiss. This big ugly man was trying to do things to her that she could not stand. She tried fighting him off, but the Blue Djinn got angry.
"Your father and mother and I have come to an agreement. You shall become my wife in two moons hence. That shall give you time to prepare and to move your possessions into my castle on the hill," the Blue Djinn stated.
"I am not ready to get married to anyone, Sir, Blue Djinn. I am still very young and have yet to see anything of the world that I wish to see," Fawzia replied.
"I did not ask you if you wished to become my wife. I have told you that you will, and your parents have agreed to the terms," the Blue Djinn restated his request.
"And I am telling you, no, thank you. I am just a young girl, not wise to ways of the world, and I wish to meet many different men before settling with any one man," Fawzia repeated her negative reply.
"You dare to tell the most powerful of the djinn that you will not marry him?"
"I dare. I wish love, and affection, with someone who is prepared to respect and honor me for the rest of his life. With you, I will be just a possession - something to own," Fawzia said.
The Blue Djinn was angry. Looking along the beach in the sand, he picked up a stick and threatened Fawzia with it.
"Why are you not a djinni?" the Blue Djinn questioned.
"How should I know? My parents are both djinn. For some reason, I have not shown the powers of a djinni at this time. Perhaps you, with your great powers, can light upon the reason for my ... humanity," Fawzia suggested.
"Your entire family are djinn. You are the black sheep!"
"Ah, you guessed, powerful one. I am also the one who wishes to see something of the world before I settle down - unlike my older sister and my two brothers," Fawzia commented. "None of those three care why they marry. But the man I marry, I must love wholeheartedly and want to be his wife forever."
"And you do not feel that way about me?"
"No, powerful one. I wish to be ... I wish to be out of your presence right now."
"So BE it!" The Blue Djinn picked up a beautiful bottle that he had just found on the beach. It was black, with gold filigree leaves all over it, and an elegant stopper. "YOU! Inside this bottle, please!"
"Now, how am I supposed to get in there! Perhaps the rest of my family can smoke in and out of places, including bottles, but I am not capable unless someone helps me."
The Blue Djinn folded his arms, muttered some very long syllables in a combination of Persian and Arabic, and a jolting feeling appeared within Fawzia. "How do you feel now, Fawzia al Babilonia? Do you feel like marrying me yet?"
"A little woozy, sir. But I still do not feel like marrying anyone right now."
"Then...smoke yourself into that bottle. You now have the capability, for I have released the djinn powers that have been within you, sequestered, until now."
"Thou hast given me powers? That is not possible!" Fawzia was speaking more formally now, feeling almost dizzy.
"Think, SMOKE. Then squeeze your djinni form into that bottle." Being slightly dizzy and feeling more compliant, and not knowing what the Blue Djinn was up to, Fawzia folded her arms, blinked, thought SMOKE, and suddenly began to smoke herself into the black and gold filigreed bottle that the Djinn had produced. "A- HA! I have got you NOW!" He said as he placed the cork on the bottle, completely trapping Fawzia al Babilonia. "You are now my captive. I will take you to a deserted island someplace, and drop you off. Perhaps some day, thousands of years from now, someone will rescue you. You have the full powers of a djinni, but because you are trapped, you are unable to use them out of the bottle until you are released. You will become the slave girl of the one that releases you, and you will serve him or her until death."
Fatima and Fazi al Babilonia, and their children Fashka, Kashmir, Demir and Bemir, did not know what had become of Fawzia. They searched and searched, and when Fazi questioned the Blue Djinn, the Blue Djinn did not give the whole truth. He only said that their daughter Fawzia had turned down his proposal and then had run away in fear. In reality, the Blue Djinn had taken the bottle to a remote island in the South Pacific, placed it in the upper section of the island where it wouldn't wash out to sea in a storm, and left it there. And it remained there for another 2000 years ... til 1965.
CHAPTER 4 - TONY - TOP GUN FIGHTER PILOT SCHOOL
Captain Roger Healey couldn't be more the opposite of himself, Tony thought about his new friend and bunkmate. Though both were from small towns not far from each other but in different states, they had totally different outlooks on life, happiness and the pursuit thereof, and women. Tony thought he could teach Roger a few things about respect for women, and also knew that Roger relied on him for some of the written work required in class. Tony didn't understand the latter until Roger explained that he had learned a few techniques for coping with dyslexia, but still relied on others to teach him orally what he needed to know. Tony did understand that, underneath that rough and comic exterior, Roger was a brilliant scientist and top-notch pilot.
No doubt about it, there was more studying required at Top Gun. They learned more about aircraft engineering than they'd learned at initial flight school, making Tony wish again that he'd taken another engineering class in college. Roger saved the day there, explaining things to Tony that he didn't have a chance in Hades to understand from the flight instructors at Top Gun. In exchange, Tony took a tape recorder and read some of the reading material required for class, into it, so Roger could study. The tape was heard going at all hours of the night in the barracks. Some of the guys complained and others said it was helpful since it helped them remember what they'd read and would be tested on the next day.
There wasn't much opportunity at Top Gun to get out and go anywhere. Tony felt that he never really saw San Diego. Years later, when someone would ask him if he'd ever been to San Diego, he would reply, "never". All he saw of it was the classrooms at NAS Miramar, the inside of simulators, the inside of aircraft, galleys, barracks, and the study rooms. Occasionally he would see Roger go out, having commented that he was tired of studying and needed to see something besides walls and books. However, Tony wanted that "TOP GUN at Top Gun" designation so that he'd have the best chance at Astronaut Corps. Drill, drill, drill. Yes, it was boring, but the destination was there. Doris Day had a song on the radio that said, "Dream..." and that's what kept him going.
One evening, though, Tony had an unusual dream. His dream must have been verbal, for it woke Roger in the bunk next to him. In the dream, a beautiful blond girl was trapped, and kept hollering, "Let me OUT of here! Let me OUT of here!" He couldn't see where she was trapped, or what she was wearing, but only that it was unusual attire. His own response was, "I'll get you! I'll get you!" which was what woke Roger. When Tony awoke, the part of the dream that he remembered the most was the beauty and wholesomeness of the girl in the dream. He told Roger, "if I ever found a girl like that, I'd marry her in a heartbeat." Roger's reaction was, "You? Old two-feet on the ground Nelson? Get married? Never! I'll bet I'm married before you are!"
A number of weeks later, Tony graduated with 8 other members of his Top Gun class. Three had washed out, declaring themselves just regular pilots, not fighter pilots. The rest were given honors - Tony, the highest Honor, that of TOP GUN at Top Gun. Now, to wait for a reply from NASA and the Astronaut Corps. In the meantime, he was being shipped out to Edwards Air Force Base, to another school for pilots. He was on his way to the Astronaut Corps, as far as he was concerned.