Tips For Top Gun Fanfic from a Military Brat/ Gold Star Kid:
Gold Star Kid: A child who lost their parent in the military
1. Army is not synonymous with Navy- They’re in the navy not the army
2. The glasses that bob wears are called BCGS- military issued glasses that are joking called “birth control goggles” bc they’re ugly af
3. Gold Star Kids, (Rooster, Mac, Ect) will normally be familiar with their dads friends even after he passes- the troop will kinda crowd to protect and help the family
4. You cannot live on base after your service member passes, you’ll almost immediately have to move off
5. If you’re married to a service member you have a military ID and base access
6. Deployment communication between partners is usual e-mail!
7. There are gold star events for kids, siblings, and even parents to help with grief! I honestly just think this would be interesting/ cute to add to a story
8. Bradley most likely got free college and probably ended up going after he didn’t get accepted into the naval academy
9. It’s actually not super common to go around in uniform for no reason and you could get in trouble for it
10. And just a random thing; Bradley definitely remembers his dad even though he was young- and honestly a lot of random things in the military probably trigger him. Likes Ices funeral, being on base and hearing TAPS; things like that.
11. Bradley has a copy of his dads tags, and a flag from his funeral
12. Remember that brad also owns a regular camouflage navy uniform just bc it’s hot
13. He also cannot just give you his dog tags lmao- he can give you an old pair but you can’t just keep his current ones.
14. While deployed a service member may only be able to come back for 2 weeks just for the birth of their child and leave again immediately.
If you have any questions you can either comment or dm me; I’m super open to talking about it- and if you have questions specifically about how military handles gold star kids lemme know:)
