========== "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; 05/27/1501:21 AM.
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#4125372 - 05/27/1501:23 AMRe: Reference in "Good Morning Veitnam" about my uncle?
[Re: MarkG]
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.
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.