Former TOPGUN pilot analyzes Marine Corps pilot's eerie calm after emergency F-18 ejection

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 sparked a small wildfire near Rimrock Lake.

Buckley, who flew F-18 Hornets during his 15-year career in the U.S.

Navy , said Simon was likely experiencing a combination of shock, an adrenaline letdown and the effects of training that teaches pilots to compartmentalize under pressure.

EIGHT BELIEVED DEAD AFTER B-52 CRASHES SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF FROM EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE "If anything's going wrong, we focus on the task.

Everything else goes away," Buckley told Fox News Digital.

"That was the most violent thing that ever happened to that Marine in his entire life." Buckley served as a pilot in the Navy from 1991 to 2006 and said he was fortunate never to have ejected from an aircraft .

The experience can have a devastating toll on the human body.

"Some folks don't go back to flying status.

I mean, you can lose a couple inches in height.

Your spine compresses.

Some people get shorter," Buckley said.