Navy Disciplines Pilot for Incident in Japan

A drunk Top Gun pilot dressed only in boxer shorts broke into an admiral’s residence and chased the admiral’s wife throughout the house until he was subdued by armed security guards, Navy sources said Saturday.

An embarrassed Navy official who requested anonymity said the incident occurred on the night of Aug. 19 at the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan. The official identified the pilot as Lt. Eric Fudge from VF-2, an F-14 fighter squadron based at the Miramar Naval Air Station.

Fudge’s squadron is currently deployed on the carrier Ranger in the Western Pacific.

Several Navy officials familiar with the incident said Fudge broke into the private residence of Vice Adm. Timothy Wright, commander of the 7th Fleet, and chased Wright’s wife around the house while she was alone. During the break-in, Fudge cut himself and left a trail of blood throughout the house, a Navy official said.

Sources said that Fudge chased the traumatized woman around the first and second floors of the residence into a second floor bathroom, where she was attempting to close the door when armed security officers arrived and arrested Fudge.

A senior Navy official said that the Navy, already reeling in the wake of several sex scandals that occurred in the past year, tried to keep both the incident and the disciplinary action against Fudge a secret. He said Fudge was “stinking drunk and wearing only his boxer shorts” at the time.

The Navy official said Fudge could have been court-martialed but was instead required to face an “admiral’s mast” this past Monday. The mast decided on non-judicial punishment akin to an administrative action.

Fudge was fined $3,000, and a punitive letter of reprimand was placed in his personnel file. He is also confined to the carrier’s stateroom until he is transferred to Miramar. He faced several charges, including conduct unbecoming an officer, drunk and disorderly conduct and using indecent language.

A senior Navy official in Hawaii said that the commanding and executive officers of Fudge’s squadron also received “non-punitive letters of caution.” The letters instructed the officers “to de-glamorize alcohol use” by pilots in the squadron, said the source.

A Top Gun pilot at Miramar who knows Fudge described him as “an exceptional pilot” who was the top pilot in his command when he was assigned to the famous fighter pilot school.

Fudge was expected to return to San Diego Aug. 29. He did not return a call left on his telephone answering machine.

In the past year, the Navy has been plagued by a series of incidents involving alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct by its officers. The Pentagon is investigating allegations that more than 25 women were fondled, groped and sexually assaulted by drunk Navy and Marine officers at the 1991 Tailhook Assn. convention in Las Vegas.

Five Navy officers from various squadrons at Miramar were permanently relieved of command in July for their roles in the Tomcat Follies, a bawdy show that featured a banner with an offensive sexual remark about Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.). Schroeder, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, had criticized the Navy’s investigation of the Tailhook incidents.

Adm. R.J. Kelly, the Pacific Fleet commander based in Honolulu, stripped the men of command but later reinstated two of the five officers.