Gerald Eddie Brown soared 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, racking up more than 10,000 hours of flying time with United Parcel Service.
Then, after a faceoff with a UPS captain, he lost his pilot license. In chat messages presented by federal prosecutors, the Gulf War veteran expressed a yearning to fly again, watching fighter-pilot videos on YouTube and “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Brown saw his chance in 2023, when at the age of 63, he got an offer to put his military experience to use in China, prosecutors say. “I am ready to live in China! Can’t wait to fly a fighter again—perfect!!!” Brown said in a message to the man who helped him land the job.
When Brown returned to the U.S. in early February, after more than two years living in China, federal agents placed him under surveillance. They arrested him later that month.
Prosecutors allege that Brown violated U.S. arms-control laws by providing unauthorized training to Chinese military pilots. They say he faces at least six to eight years in prison if convicted.
Brown “vehemently denies those allegations and looks forward to clearing his name,” his lawyers said in a court filing. The filing called the allegations “overwrought and salacious” and said the prosecution “dramatically misconstrues” Brown’s work in China.
Brown pleaded not guilty and was released on bail in April, pending trial.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is on a quest to build a “world class” military that can face off against the U.S. To help attain that goal, China is hiring former military pilots from abroad who can impart combat skills and intelligence, American and other Western officials say.
Brown’s case reveals new details about how the U.S. 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 lawyer declined to answer questions about prosecutors’ allegations and Brown’s work and personal circumstances. China’s Defense Ministry didn’t respond to questions.
Decorated
Brown was born in August 1960 in South Carolina, the son of a former U.S. Air Force mechanic who served in the Vietnam War. He followed in his father’s footsteps, joining the Air Force in the early 1980s and starting a military career that would span more than two decades.
According to military records cited in prosecution documents, Brown flew aircraft including F-15 and F-16 fighters and the A-10, a single-seat ground-attack jet. He destroyed Iraqi bunkers during the 1990-91 Gulf War and enforced no-fly zones over Iraq in the mid-1990s.
The service records describe Brown, call sign “Runner,” as a skilled pilot who showed calm professionalism in combat.
After leaving active duty in 1996, Brown continued to fly with the Air Force reserves and the Missouri Air National Guard for another decade as he transitioned to a civilian career, joining UPS as a cargo pilot in 2001.
Grounded
At home, Brown’s family life was coming apart. His wife filed a domestic-violence complaint in 2011, and they divorced about three years later, according to court records. One document said Brown had violated orders not to contact his wife and their two children.
Brown’s flying career unraveled as well, after a 2016 confrontation during a UPS flight to China from Australia. The captain questioned Brown’s handling of the takeoff and Brown responded in a way the captain alleged was threatening, according to National Transportation Safety Board documents.
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 “careless or reckless” manner. Brown challenged the ruling, but the NTSB and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his efforts.
Without a license, Brown cycled through jobs as a ground-based flight instructor with cargo airlines and U.S. military contractors, according to prosecution documents.
One employer, contractor Delaware Resource Group, dismissed Brown from his position in South Korea in 2022 after he was accused of sexually harassing female trainees, the documents said.
A second U.S. contractor, Lockheed Martin, hired Brown—and then terminated him in November 2023 after learning of his dismissal from DRG, according to the documents.
DRG didn’t respond to questions. Lockheed declined to comment.
Recruited
Brown was already exploring an opportunity in China before he lost his Lockheed job, according to prosecution documents.
Prosecutors say he 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 haven’t named the intermediary but said he was a Texas-born U.S.-Ecuadorian dual national who flew Mirage F1 fighters 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 Borys Reyes in legal records and news reports. Reyes couldn’t be reached for comment.
Stratos has been on Washington’s radar. Its owner, Su Bin, was arrested in 2014 and pleaded guilty two years later to U.S. charges of conspiring to steal data for China from American defense contractors. The Chinese businessman was sentenced to 46 months in jail and released in 2017 with time served.
In 2024, the U.S. and other governments accused Stratos of “exploiting Western and NATO personnel” to aid China’s military.
Su, Stratos and another of his companies are on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which forbids U.S. businesses from exporting to listed companies without approval. Su didn’t respond to questions sent through his companies.
Brown sought work with Su through the intermediary, according to prosecution documents, which describe Su and the intermediary as co-conspirators—though they aren’t defendants in this case.
In chat messages with the intermediary, presented by the prosecution, Brown laid bare his desire to fly again.
“I still watch fighter pilot videos almost everyday on YouTube and always listen for experiences to learn to be better,” he said in the messages.
After Brown sent his résumé, the intermediary said Su wanted to send him to the “fighter weapons school,” an apparent reference to the Chinese air force’s aerial-combat academy.
Brown said Su first offered him around $18,000 a month and a relocation fee, then “added a little” to the offer and suggested that terms could be renegotiated.
Brown told the intermediary he felt anguish when watching “Top Gun: Maverick,” which stars Tom Cruise as a veteran U.S. Navy fighter pilot. “It was killing me to think about it all being over!!!” Brown said. “Now…. I have the chance to fly and instruct fighter pilots again!”
“I hope the program continues for at least 5 years and then I will retire in China or Thailand or Vietnam,” he said. “All I care about now is going fast again and pulling g’s”—the feeling 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 for the Chinese air force the next day.
Charged
Prosecutors allege that Brown provided unauthorized training to China’s air force, including by speaking at a Beijing military conference on topics including the F-35 stealth fighter and the structure of the U.S. Air Force.
He also allegedly met Chinese military intelligence officials 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 Brown traveled to South Korea in May 2024 with the goal of meeting U.S. Air Force personnel and collecting documents on topics of interest to China, before returning to debrief Chinese intelligence officials and allowing them to retrieve data from his electronic devices.
When Brown arrived in Minneapolis in early February, he told a U.S. border official that he was working in China as a consultant providing academic airline training, prosecutors said.
Federal agents arrested Brown in late February at his home in Jeffersonville, Ind.
The Brown case is similar to one filed against former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan, who was detained in Australia in 2022 on U.S. charges that he trained Chinese military pilots. Duggan, a naturalized Australian citizen, faces extradition to the U.S. and denies the allegations.
The Brown indictment says that Su, the Stratos owner, had also worked with Duggan, whose charges concern alleged events before Su’s 2014 arrest. Duggan’s lawyers said he knew Su as an aviation-industry fixer and wasn’t aware of any improper ties that Su may have had.
Brown’s lawyers, in their bail request, said he has health issues—including a heart aneurysm, as well as poor eyesight and hearing—that meant “he cannot get behind the steering wheel of a plane ever again.”
They also said Brown would never return to China after an acrimonious exit.
“He was fired from his job in China,” the filing said. “In fact, his time there ended so badly that he fears for his life upon his return.”
Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com
