`Top Gun' aids boom of military academies

ANNAPOLIS, Md. When Tom Cruise leaped from the cockpit of a Navy jet fighter to the arms of Kelly McGillis in the movie "Top Gun," he made more than a box-office hit. He made a lot of high school students dream of military life, and this year the country's three big military academies are cashing in.

Applications are up more than 10 percent at the Naval Academy here, at West Point in New York and at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut reports no noticeable increase, though it is much smaller than the three other academies, which each…