Former TOPGUN pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley told Fox News Digital that the recent crash of a Marine Corps F-18 in Washington state — and the pilot’s split-second decision to eject — highlights both the violence of the maneuver and how the ensuing shock can leave an aviator feeling eerily calm.

On June 13, 2026, Marine Corps Maj. Jackson Simon emerged from a wooded area with a bloodied face and walked down the road toward a Yakima County sheriff’s deputy, whose bodycam captured the soldier appearing remarkably composed.

“I’m a little frazzled,” was about as close as Simon came to expressing fear after his F-18 Hornet crashed into the forest and…

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