Fly Guy: Actor Tom Cruise Awarded for Being U.S. Navy Aviation Recruitment’s 'Top Gun'

Tom Cruise was presented with the U.S. Navy’s top civilian honor Tuesday, the Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service award.

Tom Cruise accepts US Navy distinguished public servant award pic.twitter.com/Rc6QXb1gl8

— Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 (@KarluskaP) December 17, 2024

BREAKING: The U.S. Navy Awarded Tom Cruise with the Top Civilian Honor Today pic.twitter.com/53YWZHg3Mx

— Cinema Tweets (@CinemaTweets1) December 17, 2024

The award was given to Cruise because of the interest brought to the Navy by the original Top Gun movie from 1986 and its recent sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, released in 2022.

Commenters say many owe their naval careers to the first film’s inspiration.

I remember when Tom Cruise made Top Gun, he exited that experience with such reverence for those who serve it's forever changed him to champion those warriors, he's been an awesome ambassador program. remember how many people applied for Top Gun after the movie came out?

— 🇺🇲🌴PattyR 🍊🌴🇺🇲 (@FlaPatty_R) December 17, 2024

Mr. Cruise did more for motivating aspiring pilots than anyone has over the last 40 years. I also appreciate his thoughtful acknowledgement of service members and all the people behind his films.

— Formerly Aloft (@FormerlyAloft) December 17, 2024

Top Gun was the best recruitment film ever.

— Donald E Beane Jr (@DonaldEBeaneJr) December 17, 2024

Few people have recruited more folks than Tommy Boy and his Top Gun movies. pic.twitter.com/OqWGnytNtv

— Paisano (@Paisano) December 17, 2024

Both Top Gun movies were huge box office successes.

Of course, many posters couldn’t help but notice Cruise is looking a little different these days.

Man....I know he's 62, but the last couple of years has hit him hard. pic.twitter.com/cZVTGhtUzR

— WadevsTheWorld (@wadevstheworld) December 18, 2024

Sucks seeing Tom get old bro. Guy didn’t age for 50 years straight now it’s taking a turn

— Sam witwicky (@samwitwicky008) December 17, 2024

Bro finally aged. Congrats, Tom.

— bldsre (@bLdsire) December 17, 2024

I think this is the first time that we've seen Tom Cruise finally aging. Congrats!!

— Zarias 🥩 (@ofzarias) December 17, 2024

Tom’s starting to look like Jason Bateman!

— Rafester27 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@rafester27) December 17, 2024

Wow, he really does. We guess Cruise’s ‘fountain of youth’ has finally dried up. This is Cruise’s second military award. He was named the U.S. Navy’s 36th Honorary Naval Aviator in 2020.