My fellow ‘80s kids remember this shirt, but we may not recall exactly why it was, for a time, the most popular article of clothing in the country.

Operation El Dorado Canyon was a series of air strikes carried out by the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps against Libya 35 years ago today in retaliation for the West Berlin discotheque bombing that killed three and injured another 229 people, about one-third of whom were American military personnel.

The reprisal was cheered by Americans, but these shirts didn’t start showing up all over the place until a movie called Top Gun was released the following month.

Unfortunately the long-awaited sequel has been delayed yet again. Originally scheduled for release in July 2019, we’re not going to see Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky will not be made available to the viewing public before November, and I’m beginning to wonder if it’s ever coming out at all.

At least we got a cool t-shirt from the original.