Like the movie TOP GUN, the Hollywoodization of any subject takes a lot of liberties with the real deal to appeal to a general audience, but if it gets you (those in the community) respect or interest, then it meets the director/producers' objective.
As the director of TOP GUN said to senior military advisor when he pointed out that the markings they chose to paint on tail of Tomcat used in filimg was actually an E-2 squadron and wouldn't sit well with fighter community, his comment was "I'm not making the movie for them, I'm making it to be a hit with general population". Same thing happened when he selected patches for Maverick's flight jacket that hardly depict a Tomcat pilot biography (note USMC patch).