The success of the U.S. Navy fighter crews vindicated the fledgling DACT school's existence and led to TOPGUN becoming a separate, fully funded command in itself, with its own permanently assigned aviation, staffing, and infrastructural assets. TOPGUN graduates who scored air-to-air kills over North Vietnam and returned to instruct included Ronald E. "Mugs" McKeown and Jack Ensch. The first U.S. aces of the Vietnam War, Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Willie Driscoll, received no official TOPGUN training, but had, during F-4 training with VF-121, flown against TOPGUN instructors.