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#4125370 - 05/27/15 01:04 AM Reference in "Good Morning Veitnam" about my uncle?  
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,488
MarkG Offline
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MarkG  Offline
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The Bayou
Hmm. A real possibility, I've heard the stories about my father's younger brother but never put two-and-two together with the movie. My brother did.

Go to 48:20:




"TWO MARINES WERE COURT MARTIALED TODAY FOR THEIR JULY
ATTEMPT TO STEAL A PLANE AND RAID HANOI."

Yikes.

http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Public...000310600_2.pdf

==========
"In 1966 the review was completed in the general
courts-martial of the United States v. Privates First
Class Robert L. Bright and Lucien J. Gonzales. In
retrospect their cases may seem humorous footnotes,
but they did not amuse those involved. A record of
trial does not reveal the fear, anger, uncertainty, and
violence involved in dealing with drunken, belligerent
individuals in the prime of physical strength and
aggressiveness. Potential tragedy was never far away in
the less-than-grave events that transpired in the Bright
and Gonzales cases.

At about 2030 on a July night Bright and Gonzales
were returning to their unit, the 3d Engineer Battalion,
after an evening of drinking. They were quite
drunk. Their route took them across the Da Nang Airbase
and, as luck would have it, past the U.S. Air Force
flight line where two B-57 bombers sat on 15-minute
alert. Each bomber was armed with four 500-pound
bombs, a number of smaller fragmentation bombs,
and a machine gun. The bombers' jet engines could
be started from the cockpit without an external power
source, and the bombs, which were armed, could
be dropped with the push of a button, even if the
bomber was not airborne.

Recognizing their opportunity, a plan began to
form. As Gonzales later testified, "me and my best
friend wanted to do something more about the war
.... We decided to try and fly one, to kill all the
v.c. we could .... Bright, he is a pretty smart guy,
he was going to drive the plane." Bright added: "I
would fly out there on a bombing run and bomb the
v.c. This is my fourth time down here [at Da Nang]
and I know the land real well. I always wanted to fly,
anyway." Minutes later, as a night-shift mechanic
walked past the bombers, he heard someone calling,
"Sir! Sir!" Looking up he saw Bright in the pilot's cockpit
and Gonzales behind him in the navigator's cockpit.
They had dropped a helmet and wanted the
mechanic to pass it back up to them.

Within moments Bright and Gonzales were surrounded
by numerous Air Force personnel who, recognizing
the dangers of the armed munitions, tried to
talk the Marines from the cockpit. Bright and Gonzales,
however, only wanted help in starting the engines.
As Bright worked the plane's controls, Gonzales
yelled, "Leave the pilot alone. Co-pilot to pilot, let's
get this thing off the ground!"

Frustrated by the lack of cooperation, Gonzales explained
his next actions, saying, "if I couldn't fly it
... nobody else was going to fly my plane, so I broke
it." He pulled wiring loose, smashed indicator lights,
and broke control mechanisms. "It seemed to me," he
later testified, "every time you turned a knob, everything
would fall off. It was fascinating." As he broke
off each fascinating piece of equipment, he tossed it
to the tarmac.

Eventually, Gonzales was induced to climb from the
cockpit. Bright, however, remained determined to go
"up to twenty thousand feet" and bomb Vc. "Some
people tried to get me to leave the plane. When I
asked them for advice on how to start it, they pulled
me out, without my consent." Indeed, Bright finally
had to be lifted from the cockpit by the straps of the
parachute he was almost wearing.

At trial, defense counsel for Gonzales, First Lieu-
tenant Donald W. Harris, raised a spirited defense to
the charges presented by First Lieutenant Frederick C.
Woodruff, the trial counsel. But little could be done,
given the accused's apprehension while engaged in the
acts charged and surrounded by officers and air police.
In his separate trial Bright was found not guilty of attempted
wrongful appropriation of the bomber, but
like Gonzales, he was convicted of willfully damaging
it and of being drunk and disorderly. The court
found Gonzales guilty of the attempted wrongful appropriation
of the aircraft. On initial review the commanding
general reduced their sentences to
confinement at hard labor for twelve months, minor
forfeitures for a year, and reductions to private. On
appeal, after seven months of confinement had been
served, the sentences were further reduced to five
months' confinement and forfeitures.1o Privates Bright
and Gonzales both returned to duty, as engineers.
==========

I don't know if the movie really is referring to my Uncle Jay but I guess it's possible?

Last edited by MarkG; 05/27/15 01:21 AM.
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#4125372 - 05/27/15 01:23 AM Re: Reference in "Good Morning Veitnam" about my uncle? [Re: MarkG]  
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 8,543
Timothy Offline
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Timothy  Offline
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They should have just sent them over to the Army to be Grunts. Would have saved a heck of a lot of time and money. biggrin


Keep Calm and Check Canopy

There are no ex-paratroopers, only ones off jump status

Learn Economics at:
http://www.mises.org
Carthago delenda est
#4125377 - 05/27/15 01:40 AM Re: Reference in "Good Morning Veitnam" about my uncle? [Re: Timothy]  
Joined: Jul 2009
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CyBerkut Offline
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CyBerkut  Offline
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Posts: 9,619
Florida
Originally Posted By: Timothy
They should have just sent them over to the Army to be Grunts. Would have saved a heck of a lot of time and money. biggrin


Yeah, but for Marines that would probably qualify as "cruel and unusual punishment" !!! neaner

#4125379 - 05/27/15 01:43 AM Re: Reference in "Good Morning Veitnam" about my uncle? [Re: MarkG]  
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,488
MarkG Offline
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MarkG  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,488
The Bayou
My father's family grew up like wild animals, lots of things I hear about don't surprise me at all. Uncle Jay (above) is the nuttiest, as a kid he took out another uncle's eye with a fork at the dinner table. Nice.

One of my grandfather's last wishes was that he have no funeral because he didn't want any SOB grieving over him. The jerk got his wish. smile

Most of them turned out to be really good people though (it took my father time), but alcohol abuse (especially) runs strong in this family. I had a cousin (fellow Rush fan and the one who started my 8-track collection) commit suicide not that long ago, I believe he was an alcoholic.


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