Sailor Story: Top Gun Inspires

[Navy for Moms Admin]

Sailor: Lt. Mehdi Akacem, Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Md.
Mom: Sandra Akacem, Stamford, Conn.

At age nine, Naval Flight Officer Lt. Mehdi Akacem knew he wanted to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

“I always wanted to be a Naval Flight Officer, there was no question,” Akacem says. “After I watched Top Gun, it only heightened my determination and focus. High school wasn’t stimulating. I needed academic structure and I needed a bit of discipline and, bottom line, I wanted to fly.”

The news that her son wanted to attend the U.S. Naval Academy came as a shock to Akacem’s mom, Sandra, who was involved in the anti-war movement in New York City in the 1960s. Eventually, “fed up with not being heard,” Sandra expatriated to France, married an Algerian and had two sons.

She remembers when Akacem first told her he wanted to join the Navy. “I thought back to the quote from writer, Khalil Gibran: ‘The parents are the bow from which the child springs.’ I knew I had to support the life he wanted.”

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1999, Akacem began training at NAS Pensacola, Fla. In 2001, he earned his wings. He then completed EA-6B Prowler training in Whidbey Island, Wash. He launched his first deployment in 2002 on the USS George Washington. Stationed in the Indian Ocean, Akacem spent the year touring Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Italy and Kosovo.

His team was among the first to engage in Electronic Warfare Close Air Support (EW-CAS), which allows Prowlers to support ground troops by jamming hostile radio communications and radar equipment. Soon after, most Navy aircraft in Afghanistan were providing ground forces with this type of support.

“They call it low-density, high demand,” Akacem says. “These were the missions where we had to be on our toes.”

In early 2004, Akacem completed his Mission Commander qualifications and was one of an elite group of 11 pilots to graduate from the Electronics Attack Weapons School (EAWS) Prowler Tactics Instructor course at NAS Whidbey Island, Wash.

“This is pretty incredible for our community – we were training together with the U.S. Air Force, it was amazing,” says Akacem.

Three days after graduation, Akacem deployed on the USS John F. Kennedy, where he spent six months in the Persian Gulf participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He went on to attend an 18-month master’s degree program in aeronautical engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Currently, he is stationed in Patuxent River, Md., where he works as a Developmental Test Officer for the recently modernized EA-6B, testing the updated weapons systems and ensuring their efficiency.

Today, Sandra Akacem’s views of the military have changed.

“Mehdi’s career has changed my prejudices – the very last thing I wanted for my children was for them to be in the military. Mehdi’s life in the Navy has completely changed my feelings. He is living his dream, and I will always support him,” she says.