Gerald Eddy Brown took to the skies for more than three decades, flying jet fighters for the U.S. Air Force and traveling the world as a commercial aviator.
Brown saw combat in the Middle East, won medals, and rose to the rank of major. He became a cargo pilot and flew over 10,000 hours with United Parcel Service.
Then, after a clash with a UPS captain, he lost his pilot’s license. In chat messages presented by federal prosecutors, the Gulf War veteran expressed a desire to fly again after watching fighter-pilot videos and “Top Gun: Maverick” on YouTube.
Prosecutors say Brown got his chance in 2023, when, at age 63, he received an offer to use his military experience in China. “I’m ready to live in China! Can’t wait to fly fighter planes again—perfect!!!” Brown said in a message to the person who helped him get the job.
When Brown returned to the United States in early February after living in China for more than two years, federal agents placed him under surveillance. They arrested him later that month.
Prosecutors allege Brown violated U.S. arms-control laws by providing unauthorized training to Chinese military pilots. He says that if found guilty, he could face at least six to eight years in jail.
“Brown strongly denies those allegations and looks forward to clearing his name,” Brown’s lawyers said in a court filing. The filing described the charges as “extreme and egregious” and said prosecutors “dramatically misrepresented” Brown’s work in China.
Brown pleaded innocent and was released on bail in April pending trial.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is looking to build a “world-class” military that can compete against the US, to help achieve that goal, China Hiring former military pilots American and other Western officials say there are people from abroad who can provide combat skills and intelligence.
Brown’s case reveals new details of how the US says China is recruiting foreigners to advance Xi’s aspirations — and how Washington, in response, aims to prosecute pilots it accuses of helping Beijing.
Brown’s attorney declined to answer questions about prosecutors’ allegations and Brown’s work and personal circumstances. China’s Defense Ministry did not respond to questions.
decorated
Brown was born in August 1960 in South Carolina, the son of a former US Air Force mechanic who served in the Vietnam War. He followed his father’s footsteps and joined the Air Force in the early 1980s and began a military career that spanned more than two decades.
According to military records cited in prosecution documents, Brown flew aircraft including F-15 and F-16 fighter planes and the A-10, a single-seat ground-attack jet. They destroyed Iraqi bunkers during the 1990–91 Gulf War and imposed a no-fly zone over Iraq in the mid-1990s.
Service records describe Brown, known as “Runner”, as a skilled pilot who showed quiet professionalism in combat.
After leaving active duty in 1996, Brown continued to fly with the Air Force Reserve and the Missouri Air National Guard for another decade and entered a civilian career in 2001, joining UPS as a cargo pilot.
land
At home, Brown’s family life was deteriorating. According to court records, his wife filed a domestic-violence complaint in 2011 and they divorced about three years later. A document states Brown violated orders not to have contact with his wife and their two children.
Brown’s flying career also went into disarray in 2016, following a collision during a UPS flight from Australia to China. According to National Transportation Safety Board documents, the captain questioned Brown’s manner of handling takeoff, and Brown responded in a manner that the captain accused of being threatening.
UPS fired Brown in 2017. The Federal Aviation Administration revoked his pilot license the next year, ruling that he had threatened the captain, left his crew station and acted in a “reckless or reckless” manner. Brown challenged the decision, but the NTSB and the DC Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his efforts.
According to prosecution documents, without a license, Brown took jobs as a ground-based flight instructor with cargo airlines and US military contractors.
One employer, contractor Delaware Resource Group, fired Brown from his post in South Korea in 2022 after he was accused of sexually harassing female interns, the documents said.
According to the documents, another US contractor, Lockheed Martin, hired Brown and then fired him in November 2023 after receiving information about his termination from DRG.
DRG did not respond to questions. Lockheed declined to comment.
Recruitment
According to prosecution documents, Brown was looking for opportunities in China even before he lost his Lockheed job.
Prosecutors say they had an intermediary: a former Ecuadorian Air Force pilot who was working for a Chinese company, Stratos Aviation, to train Chinese Air Force pilots.
Prosecutors have not named the mediator, but said he was a Texas-born U.S.-Ecuadorian dual citizen who flew Mirage F1 fighter planes and was shot down in 2019 while working as a contractor for the Libyan Air Force — a description that matches the profile of a man named Boris Reyes in legal records and news reports. Reyes could not be reached for comment.
Stratos is on Washington’s radar. Its owner, Su Bin, was arrested in 2014 and convicted two years later on US charges of conspiring to steal data from US defense contractors for China. The Chinese businessman was sentenced to 46 months in prison and released after time served in 2017.
In 2024, the US and other governments accused Stratos of “exploiting Western and NATO personnel” to assist China’s military.
Su, Stratos and their other companies are on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which prevents U.S. businesses from exporting to listed companies without approval. Su did not respond to questions sent through his companies.
Brown sought to work with Su through the mediator, according to prosecution documents, which describe Su and the mediator as co-conspirators — although they are not defendants in the case.
In chat messages with the mediator presented by prosecutors, Brown expressed his desire to fly again.
“I still watch videos of fighter pilots on YouTube almost every day and always listen to their experiences to learn to become better,” he said in messages.
After Brown sent his resume, the mediator said Su wanted to send him to “combat weapons school”, an apparent reference to the Chinese Air Force’s air-combat academy.
Brown said Su first offered him about $18,000 a month plus a transfer fee, then “added a little bit” to the offer and suggested the terms could be renegotiated.
Brown told the mediator he felt pain while watching “Top Gun: Maverick,” which stars Tom Cruise as a veteran U.S. Navy fighter pilot. “The thought of it all ending is killing me!!!” Brown said. “Now… I get the chance to fly and instruct fighter pilots again!”
“I hope the program will continue for at least 5 years and then I will retire to China or Thailand or Vietnam,” he said. “Now I just worry about going fast again and pulling the G” – Perception of inertial forces during aerial maneuvers.
Brown flew to China in December 2023. On his first day, he met with Chinese officials and answered questions about the U.S. Air Force for three hours, prosecutors said. Brown presented a brief on himself to the Chinese Air Force the next day.
accused
Prosecutors allege that Brown provided unauthorized training to China’s air force, including giving a speech at a Beijing military conference on topics including the F-35 stealth fighter and the structure of the U.S. Air Force.
He reportedly met with Chinese military intelligence officers at least 10 to 15 times, answering questions on topics including his career and his work at Lockheed Martin, where he was an F-35 simulator instructor.
Prosecutors allege that Brown traveled to South Korea in May 2024 with the goal of meeting with U.S. Air Force personnel and collecting documents on topics of interest to China before interrogating Chinese intelligence officials and allowing them to retrieve data from their electronic devices.
Prosecutors said that when Brown arrived in Minneapolis in early February, he told a U.S. border officer he was working as a consultant providing academic airline training in China.
Federal agents arrested Brown at his home in Jeffersonville, Ind., in late February.
The Brown case is similar to the case filed against former US Marine Corps pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan, who was detained in Australia in 2022 over US allegations that he trained Chinese military pilots. Duggan, a naturalized Australian citizen, is facing extradition to the US and denies the charges.
The Brown indictment says Su, the owner of Stratos, also worked with Duggan, whose charges relate to alleged incidents prior to Su’s 2014 arrest. Duggan’s lawyers said he knew Su as an aviation-industry fixer and was not aware of any inappropriate relationships Su had.
Brown’s lawyers said in their bail request that he has health problems – including a heart aneurysm, as well as poor vision and hearing – that mean “he may never sit behind the steering wheel of an aircraft again.”
He also said that Brown would never return to China after the acrimonious exit.
“He was fired from his job in China,” the filing said. “In fact, his time there ended so badly that he fears his life will be in danger if he returns.”
Write to Chun Han Wong chunhan.wong@wsj.com
