REMEMBERING JIM HUSTON, THE NAVAL FLIGHT OFFICER WHO FILMED THE AERIAL SEQUENCES OF “THE FINAL COUNTDOWN” CULT MOVIE

While in the Jolly Rogers, Jim Huston participated in making the movie “The Final Countdown,” filming several scenes with a camera in the back seat of the F-14

Jim Huston, one of the F-14 Tomcat Naval Flight Officers (NFOs) from VF-84 Jolly Rogers who participated in making the cult movie “The Final Countdown,” passed away at the age of 62 on Apr. 14, 2016.

Jim was born on Oct. 26, 1953, in West Lafayette, Indiana, and attended the University of South Carolina on a Navy ROTC scholarship, majoring in history, with a minor in English. As reported by Goodreads Blog, Jim did an exchange cruise on a French Navy destroyer, and also attended the University of Warwick in England to study English Reformation history and English literature. After college, he became an NFO and flew F-14 fighter jets with VF-84, the Jolly Rogers, on the USS Nimitz (CVN-68).

While in the Jolly Rogers, he participated in making the movie The Final Countdown, filming several scenes with a camera in the back seat of an F-14. The motion picture featured a unique dogfight that saw two Mitsubishi A6M Zero replicas flying against two F-14 Tomcats. Noteworthy, as explained by the then Jolly Rogers aircrews in the documentary featurette that accompanies ‘The Final Countdown’ DVD, this “dissimilar engagement” was the first time that “the match-up of fighters with totally different speeds, totally different environments and weaponry had ever been done in film.”

Huston then did two Mediterranean cruises and other cruises to the Caribbean and the North Atlantic. He graduated from Topgun before his second cruise. After his tour with VF-84, Huston taught Seapower and Maritime Affairs at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. He left active duty to attend the University of Virginia School of Law, after which he continued flying in the Navy Reserves, ultimately transferring to Naval Intelligence.

After having retired from Naval Intelligence Reserves, Huston became not only a successful lawyer but also a New York Times best-selling author, best known for his popular military and legal thrillers.

We think the best way to remember Jim is watching (once again!!) the aerial sequences featured in The Final Countdown.

Photo from a video screenshot and Kristen Bons via Wikipedia