‘Top Gun’ journalist dies in Israel

 

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO–Recently I learned, to some shock, that one of the people who helped make the Top Gun school at Miramar Naval Air Station famous–Ehud Yonay –had died  of brain cancer on August 21 at age 71 in Israel.

Yonay, a journalist and a student of the military, had written an article about the Top Gunners for California Magazine.  In turn, the magazine article was read by Hollywood producers, who used it as the basis for the movie starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis.

Top Gun had quite an impact on San Diego following its release in 1986 not only because the school for Navy pilots was here but because in riding around San Diego in his off-hours, Cruise’s character, “Maverick,” showed off a little bit of the town.

One of the major beneficiaries of  that publicity was Kansas City Barbecue, across Harbor Drive from the downtown Convention Center, in which in one scene Cruise played an old funky piano.  That brought to the restaurant many a customer who not only wanted to taste the barbecue but also to play the keyboards themselves.

Ehud and I went to UCLA together and in fact he served as an usher in my wedding in 1968 to Nancy.  While we were both journalists, our careers took us in different directions.

After writing the magazine piece, he went  back to Israel where he researched and wrote another impactful military-themed book, No Margin for Error: the Making of the Israeli Air Force.  He also developed a farm in Kfar Hasidim, a village established by family members who were Chasidic Jews.

Meanwhile, Miramar Naval Air Station was transferred to the Marine Corps, and the Navy’s Top Gun School went to Fallon, Nevada.   I regret to say that Ehud and I only infrequently were in touch, the most recent time having been on one of my trips to Israel when I visited him at his olive farm.

David Snyder, a close family friend, reported that “in the last decade or so Ehud invested all his energies and time by adapting his family farm to a place that continues to contribute to its original dream and purpose by creating a meeting place that promotes the retelling of history, discussing current events while enjoying good food that is based on regional recipes with locally grown ingredients and prepared on the premises.”

Snyder added that Ehud “was a romantic, a dreamer and above all a unique synthesis of his religious, nationalistic and agricultural background — a true lover of the land and people of Israel.”

These comments were forwarded to me by Shoshi Yonay, who was Ehud’s second wife.    In informing me of his death, Mrs. Yonay wrote: “These days I find myself grabbing every memory of what I had with Ehud in the last 14 years and every piece of information about him.

“I don’t know if you know but we have a son – Yuval . He is nearly 12 (21/11/2000) I feel that I have such a big responsibility to pass on to him Ehud’s heritage and things about his life that I did not know before. The last  10 years were very intensive trying to make a living from the olive grove and touristic activity that we developed here; and somehow  I don’t know much about the U.S.A. period in his life.

“You can learn more of what we did here in our website www.yonayolives.co.il ”

To add to her and Yuval’s knowledge of Ehud’s “U.S.A. period,” I am hoping that some readers of San Diego Jewish World also knew Ehud Yonay and would like to share their memories with her.  Postal mail will reach Shoshi Yonay at P.O.B 5086 Kfar Hasidim, Israel 20400.  She also would be delighted to receive emails at eyonay@zahav.net.il

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com