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Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker BTK every 52 00:02:25.879 --> 00:02:29.560 week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and 53 00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:34.159 infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host, 54 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:50.000 journalist and author Dan Zufanski, Good Evening, the true story 55 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:52.599 of air force men and women who struggle to prevent 56 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:56.240 a mass murder and an aviation disaster, and the heroic 57 00:02:56.360 --> 00:03:00.520 response to both tragedies when the warnings go unheeded. Have 58 00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:03.840 you ever heard somebody say that a tragedy struck without warning? 59 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:08.759 On June twentieth, nineteen ninety four, a former airman sought 60 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:12.280 vengeance with a rifle at the Fairchild Air Force Base Hospital. 61 00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:15.919 Four days later, a rogue pilot crashed to B fifty 62 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:20.240 two outside a Fairchild's nuclear weapons storage area. Both tragedies 63 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:25.039 had been predicted and repeatedly warned about. Warnings unheeded is 64 00:03:25.080 --> 00:03:27.400 a rare look inside the troubled mind of a would 65 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:30.919 be active shooter. It is an exclusive look at a 66 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:34.280 talented pilot whose dangerous flying prompted air crews to refuse 67 00:03:34.360 --> 00:03:37.240 to fly with him. Is a look at the leadership 68 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:39.960 culture that allowed both men to travel unchecked on the 69 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.639 pathway toward destruction. This unique true crime book reads like 70 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:48.919 a suspense novel, densely packed with details garnered from medical records, 71 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:53.280 police reports, and first hand accounts obtained from journal entries, letters, 72 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:58.199 witness statements, and personal interviews. These empowering stories detailed the 73 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:01.479 heroic response to the tragedies, the events that lead up 74 00:04:01.479 --> 00:04:04.680 to them, the precursors of violence and disaster, and the 75 00:04:04.759 --> 00:04:10.560 traumatic aftermath. Written by Andy Brown, the man who ended 76 00:04:10.599 --> 00:04:14.400 the hospital killing spree, Brown's narrative focused mainly on others, 77 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:18.399 including heroic life saving actions of hospital patrons and staff, 78 00:04:18.839 --> 00:04:22.160 but he also describes the preparations he made which enabled 79 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:25.560 him to win a pistol versus rifle gunfight, as well 80 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:29.439 as his own experience with the effects of trauma. The 81 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:33.319 book that were featuring this evening, his warnings unheeded Twin 82 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:38.160 Tragedies at Fairchild Air Force Base with my special guest, 83 00:04:38.680 --> 00:04:44.240 author and former starf staff Sergeant Andy Brown. Welcome to 84 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:46.720 the program, Andy Brown. 85 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:50.759 Thank you, Dan, I appreciate you having me on the show. 86 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:55.680 Thank you very much for joining us with this incredible tale. 87 00:04:56.120 --> 00:04:59.800 Actually two tales interwoven into one here, two disasters of 88 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:06.519 epic proportions. Here, let's get right to your background. You 89 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:10.680 talked about sort of the Air Force and military being 90 00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:13.439 in your blood. Tell us about your life growing up, 91 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:15.480 your mom and your dad, where you grew up, and 92 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:18.920 what things shaped you and made you want to become 93 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:20.279 a member of law enforcement. 94 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:26.319 Sure. I grew up in Port Orchard, Washington, Washington State, 95 00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:32.639 and my family had a long military history. My father 96 00:05:32.920 --> 00:05:35.800 and grandfather were in the Navy, my brother joined the Army, 97 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:39.040 and my sister was in the Air Force. My dad 98 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:41.759 was also a firefighter after he got out of the Navy. 99 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:46.399 So I was always interested in public service, and I 100 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:50.279 was a volunteer firefighter for a short while. But I 101 00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:54.920 also had a fascination with firearms. So I eventually decided 102 00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:58.160 that I wanted to become a law enforcement officer, and 103 00:05:58.279 --> 00:06:01.240 right out of high school, they didn't have any career 104 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:04.560 paths and you couldn't become a police officer in a 105 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:08.079 civilian life. So I joined the Air Force and with 106 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:11.560 the intent of going into the security police, the Air 107 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:20.000 Force's military police career field. So at the age of nineteen, 108 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:24.480 I joined the Air Force and went through basic training, 109 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:28.399 and my first duty station was in Mountain Home, Idaho, 110 00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:32.480 which I kind of wanted to see the world, and 111 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:35.720 the deserts of Idaho weren't exactly my cup of tea, 112 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:39.399 so I put in for an overseas tour and went 113 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:42.759 over to Greece. I spent three years there and then 114 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:47.399 ended up at Fairchild Air Force Base. But I enjoyed 115 00:06:47.399 --> 00:06:52.199 the career. I enjoyed law enforcement. However, I didn't think 116 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:56.519 that the training that we received was adequate enough, especially 117 00:06:56.519 --> 00:07:00.399 when it came to firearms. I took the job very 118 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:03.720 seriously and knew that there might come a time where 119 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:09.279 I would encounter a lethal force situation, and I wanted 120 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:11.639 to be as prepared for that as I could be. 121 00:07:12.519 --> 00:07:15.519 And we only fired our duty weapons, the Barretta M 122 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:19.920 nine twice a year, and so as soon as I could, 123 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:23.040 I bought my own handgun it was a clone of 124 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:26.279 the Barretta, and practiced with it as often as I could, 125 00:07:27.160 --> 00:07:32.920 and just so that I could have the the best 126 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:37.120 marksmanship skills as possible. Outside of the train at the 127 00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:41.800 Air Force gave me, and I also wanted to work 128 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:44.240 on my officer safety and my mindset, so I read 129 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:48.839 a lot of books on tactics and such, and one 130 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:52.879 of the things that I found most useful, especially in 131 00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:56.040 the incident that we're going to talk about, was mental rehearsal, 132 00:07:56.920 --> 00:07:59.480 where every night before I went to bed, I would 133 00:07:59.560 --> 00:08:03.600 envision a different lethal force encounter that I that I 134 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:09.680 might experience someday, and I would practice what specific steps 135 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:12.600 I would take as far as seeking cover and and 136 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:18.680 getting my site alignment with my handgun, and and just 137 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:23.399 visually practice those those events so that if I ever 138 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:25.800 did encounter them, it would be like it wasn't the 139 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:27.800 first time that I was experiencing it, and I would 140 00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:30.639 be able to just go on instinct and be able 141 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:34.480 to automatically react to the situation in front of me. 142 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:40.919 A lot of people made fun of me for that. 143 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:44.759 They thought I was being paranoid, and with the different 144 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:48.399 tactics that I would practice, they thought I was gonna 145 00:08:48.440 --> 00:08:51.600 go on overboard. But there were some who who, like me, 146 00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:55.039 took the job as seriously as as they would possibly could, 147 00:08:55.639 --> 00:08:58.200 just so that we would be ready, just in case, 148 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:02.080 we were called upon not only to save our own lives, 149 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:04.279 but to save the lives of others. I've made a 150 00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:07.879 commitment to myself that if I was ever in that 151 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:10.879 situation and somebody's life was in danger, I didn't do 152 00:09:10.919 --> 00:09:14.200 all that I could to protect them, that I wouldn't 153 00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:15.200 be able to live with myself. 154 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:19.320 So right, So tell us a little bit about sorry, 155 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:22.240 tell us a little bit about Fairchild Air Force Base 156 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:25.720 as well, and also in sort of the air show 157 00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:28.879 culture that existed there as well, and tell us a 158 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:29.679 little bit about that. 159 00:09:30.759 --> 00:09:36.080 Sure, if Fairchild is located near Spokane, Washington, was about 160 00:09:36.279 --> 00:09:38.639 two hundred and fifty miles away from my hometown, so 161 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:42.759 it was an area I was somewhat familiar with. But 162 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:48.000 it had two aircraft stationed there at the time, two 163 00:09:48.039 --> 00:09:53.120 different types. The KC one five, which is a refueling airplane. 164 00:09:53.320 --> 00:09:57.039 It was like a modified airliner designed to carry a 165 00:09:57.080 --> 00:09:59.440 lot of fuel. And then the B fifty two bomber, 166 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:02.559 which was also the size of a small airliner, had 167 00:10:02.759 --> 00:10:06.679 maybe one hundred and eighty five foot wingspan, a very large, 168 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:12.879 long range bomber. But fair Child, like most air Force bases, 169 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:16.759 had a long history of putting on air shows. Most 170 00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:22.440 of your air shows, they're mostly filled with a single 171 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:25.960 engine jet fighters that are more maneuverable and can perform aerobatics. 172 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:29.159 But a fair Child had a history of trying to 173 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:32.759 use their heavy aircraft the size of an airliner in 174 00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:37.440 the air shows and performing aerobatics with those aircraft. They 175 00:10:38.600 --> 00:10:43.279 developed an air show stunt team with their heavy aircraft, 176 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:47.519 and it resulted in a crash, a fatal crash, and 177 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:51.080 that was in nineteen eighty seven, so they kind of 178 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.399 stepped away from that and stopped that program. Within a 179 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:59.480 few years after, they kind of forgot the lessons that 180 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:03.519 they learned that tragedy and started allowing the B fifty 181 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:09.399 two specifically to fly in some very dangerous aerobatic maneuvers 182 00:11:10.799 --> 00:11:13.879 that were crowd pleasers. It was very impressive, but it 183 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:16.799 was also very dangerous if you knew anything about the 184 00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:20.519 handling capabilities of that airplane. 185 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:24.000 Tell us a little bit about your duties at Fairchild 186 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:26.000 Air Force Base, and then tell us just a little 187 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:29.480 bit about the hospital, the medical center there, and the 188 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:33.080 buildings that are around there that become important in this story. 189 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:38.960 It's okay, I was a patrolman, a motorized patrolman for 190 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:41.879 the most part in a patrol car, just like you 191 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:45.600 would see in a civilian law enforcement. We would patrol 192 00:11:45.639 --> 00:11:52.559 the base doing traffic enforcement, responding to bar fights and 193 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:57.240 loud and noise complaints and domestic disturbances, that type of thing. 194 00:12:00.440 --> 00:12:04.440 The hospital, we had a full size hospital on the base, 195 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:08.559 but this particular at this particular base, the hospital was 196 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:12.480 located just outside the perimeter fence and it was surrounded 197 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:17.799 by two military housing areas on either side of it. 198 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:20.159 It was a three story building and there was an 199 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:25.360 annex building that used to be dormitory for the medical personnel. 200 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:30.480 It had been converted to office spaces and one of 201 00:12:30.519 --> 00:12:34.759 the units in that annex building was the mental health facility. 202 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:42.200 But it had the full capabilities of any other hospital, 203 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:43.840 just like you would see in the civilian world. 204 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:50.559 Right, let's talk about Dean Melburg. You talk about Gary 205 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:53.200 and Louise Melburg, and you've done extensive research to be 206 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:58.679 able to tell about Dean's life with his parents. Very interesting. 207 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:02.159 His role of his mother has in his story and 208 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:05.840 he was born in Lansing, Michigan. Tell us about Dean 209 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:08.759 Milburgh Melburg like you do in. 210 00:13:08.679 --> 00:13:16.159 Your book, sure, Dean Melberg. He grew up in Lancing, Michigan. 211 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:21.679 He was always kind of an outsider. He didn't have 212 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:27.519 the social skills that most people did, and early on 213 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:33.799 he showed some signs of mental health impairment and just 214 00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:39.960 didn't have just wasn't a normal kid. And in high school, 215 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:42.399 probably throughout all of his school years, but especially in 216 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:45.840 high school, kids were prone to picking on him because 217 00:13:45.879 --> 00:13:50.759 he didn't fit in. They would push him around in 218 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:56.039 the hallways and verbally abuse him and trip him in 219 00:13:56.039 --> 00:13:58.000 the halls and knock his books out of his hand, 220 00:13:58.039 --> 00:14:02.960 that kind of a thing. Self proclaimed jock said that 221 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:06.480 he was treated like any other nerd who wouldn't defend himself, 222 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:11.320 So I guess you could say he was bullied, but 223 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:15.519 he also kind of brought that treatment upon himself. He 224 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:24.519 just acted very strangely, and he was accused of openly 225 00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:28.919 masturbating in classrooms and staring at girls while he was 226 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:31.440 doing it. There were people who tried to befriend him, 227 00:14:31.559 --> 00:14:35.120 and he just seemed to push them away through his behavior. 228 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:38.519 One girl who took pity on him and tried to 229 00:14:38.519 --> 00:14:41.720 befriend him and be nice to him, he returned that 230 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:46.000 favor by masturbating in class in front of her until 231 00:14:46.039 --> 00:14:49.799 she eventually just told him to leave her alone. And 232 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:52.759 there were other kids who would be nice to him 233 00:14:52.799 --> 00:14:57.159 and befriend him, but he just always seemed to distance 234 00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:04.320 himself from his peers by mistreating his his friends. He 235 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:08.200 also had a mother who people say was very overbearing 236 00:15:08.279 --> 00:15:13.000 and very protective of him, which may have contributed to 237 00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:16.440 his lack of coping skills. Whenever something went wrong, she 238 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:18.679 seemed to be able to She seemed to just step 239 00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:21.559 in and try to handle it for him and not 240 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:28.799 give him any life experience. Also, he had an interest 241 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:32.000 in the military, and right after he graduated high school 242 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.879 he joined the Air Force, and it seemed like that 243 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.559 was going to be his escape where he could maybe 244 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:43.159 get away from his mom's overbearingness and get a new start, 245 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:47.960 start fresh, and make a good life for himself, it seemed, 246 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:54.639 but his behavior interfered with that as well. In basic training, 247 00:15:55.399 --> 00:15:58.759 he was pretty quickly identified as having mental health problems 248 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:03.360 and was referred to the mental health facilities there at 249 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:08.600 Basic Training, and they pretty quickly recommended he be discharged 250 00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:14.879 from the military. He wasn't military material. He had very 251 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:22.600 poor social skills and paranoid or personality disorders, and the 252 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:26.080 basic training instructor agreed that yes, he shouldn't be in 253 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:29.159 the military, he should be discharged, but it wasn't up 254 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:31.120 to them, and it wasn't up to the doctors either. 255 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:34.879 They could only make a recommendation, and the commander of 256 00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:38.879 his basic training squadron overruled the doctors and told his TI, 257 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:41.039 his training instructor, to get him back in training and 258 00:16:41.879 --> 00:16:45.759 let him graduate. Something similar happened at his tech school. 259 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:49.919 He was going to go to school to be a 260 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.679 lab technician to calibrating electronics and other equipment and tools 261 00:16:54.679 --> 00:16:57.720 for the Air Force, and at his basic or at 262 00:16:57.720 --> 00:17:03.200 his tech school, he had problems with his roommates and 263 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:07.039 he threatened to set one of his roommates on fire 264 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:09.000 when it while he slept, told him he was going 265 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:11.440 to douse him in lighter fluid and set him on fire, 266 00:17:12.680 --> 00:17:17.319 and that pretty quickly led to another referral to mental health, 267 00:17:17.640 --> 00:17:21.039 and I can only assume that they recommended his discharge 268 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:24.680 from the military as well, but for some reason, none 269 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:29.160 of the records exist on that trip to mental health 270 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:33.680 from his tech school, but several of the instructors there 271 00:17:33.720 --> 00:17:38.680 recommended that he be kicked out of the Air Force 272 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:42.519 and they were overruled from the leadership gooul. They said, 273 00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:45.799 he's got good grades and he's going to graduate sooner enough, 274 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:48.799 basically that it would be somebody else's problem. Let's just 275 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:53.079 graduate him and push him down the line. His first, 276 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:56.839 very first duty station after tech school was Fairchild Air 277 00:17:56.880 --> 00:18:03.680 Force Base, and wasn't a very good performer in his laboratory. 278 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:06.039 He could perform well on tests, but he had a 279 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:08.880 hard time applying any of the skills that he learned 280 00:18:09.160 --> 00:18:13.759 in the real world, so he was very difficult to train. 281 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:18.200 And again he had zero social skills. He didn't know 282 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:21.720 how to talk to people. When he did speak, which 283 00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:24.920 wasn't very often, he would speak in a halting whisper. 284 00:18:26.519 --> 00:18:29.640 So he had trouble at work, but also with his roommates. 285 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:32.640 He went through several roommates and each one of them 286 00:18:32.680 --> 00:18:35.680 complained about him openly masturbating in front of them and 287 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:40.440 their girlfriends. Just pretty really difficult person to live with. 288 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:43.920 So he was referred to mental health there at Fairchild, 289 00:18:44.519 --> 00:18:47.960 and again they recommended he'd be discharged from the military, 290 00:18:49.319 --> 00:18:54.519 but his commander at Fairchild thought that the Air Force 291 00:18:54.599 --> 00:18:57.400 just spent a lot of money training him, and that 292 00:18:58.000 --> 00:18:59.640 we need to get the money's worth out of him 293 00:18:59.640 --> 00:19:02.519 and give him a chance to adapt to military life. 294 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:07.440 So they the commanders overruled the mental health recommendation to 295 00:19:07.480 --> 00:19:09.240 discharge him and kept him in the military. 296 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:15.440 What was he What was his appetitude? Though what was 297 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:18.680 interesting wasn't surprising to some people. What was his aptitude 298 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:22.200 in the military towards we'll say marksmanship. 299 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:29.519 He was an expert marksman. He was allowed to train 300 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:35.279 on the M sixteen rifle, and even though the mental 301 00:19:35.279 --> 00:19:37.559 health doctors at basic training said if he is ever 302 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:40.200 kept in the military, he should be excluded from weapon 303 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:46.119 handling and nuclear weapons facilities and such, but that word 304 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:48.720 didn't get passed down the line. So he was allowed 305 00:19:48.920 --> 00:19:51.759 to train on the M sixteen and he was an 306 00:19:51.839 --> 00:20:00.960 expert shot with that. He after he was recommended referred 307 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:05.279 to mental health, he developed a fixation on that and 308 00:20:05.319 --> 00:20:08.119 thought that just seeing the mental health doctors was going 309 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:12.480 to be on his permanent record and ruin his military career. 310 00:20:12.839 --> 00:20:17.759 So he pretty much fixated on his roommate. Because the 311 00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:22.079 complaints from his roommate which led to his referral of 312 00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:27.920 mental health, he began to stalk that roommate, and he 313 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:32.119 became so fixated on the roommate's complaint that his work 314 00:20:32.200 --> 00:20:36.839 performance suffered even more. Was kind of a weird situation 315 00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:41.319 where if he'd just let that go, he was going 316 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:44.359 to be allowed to stay in the military, and because 317 00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:47.960 his commander was given a second chance. But by that 318 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:50.759 time he was so obsessed with the complaint that he 319 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:55.440 pretty much let everything go as far as his work 320 00:20:55.480 --> 00:20:59.680 performance and just obsessed over his roommate's complaint to where 321 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:04.400 that led to another mental health referral. By that time, 322 00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:09.200 the doctors at Fairchild began to get the impression that 323 00:21:09.240 --> 00:21:12.640 he was a danger to himself or others, more so 324 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:17.440 to him to others because of his fixation on the roommate, 325 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:24.920 that they referred him to mental health hospital in Texas, 326 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:29.200 where he spent ninety days on the psychiatric ward of 327 00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:35.160 Wilford Hall Medical Center. While he was there, he received 328 00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:41.119 numerous diagnoses. The nurses there were afraid of him. He 329 00:21:41.839 --> 00:21:46.000 also exhibited his perverse behavior there right in front of 330 00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:48.920 all the other patients and doctors. It didn't seem to matter. 331 00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:53.440 Nothing could stop him from masturbating openly in front of 332 00:21:54.440 --> 00:21:58.559 whoever happened to be in the area, but they he 333 00:21:58.599 --> 00:22:05.039 was diagnosed with anxiety disorders and antisocial personality. A lot 334 00:22:05.079 --> 00:22:07.920 of the nurses thought that he was attending to internal 335 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:13.920 stimuli or hearing voices. He would always just smile for 336 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:18.839 no apparent reason and or laugh to himself. He was 337 00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:24.480 diagnosed with organic mental disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder, and 338 00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:32.279 most notably was a paranoid personality disorder and psychosis. Pretty 339 00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:35.079 much all the doctors there agreed that he should be 340 00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:40.759 discharged from the military, but about that time, his mother 341 00:22:40.839 --> 00:22:44.480 flew down to San Antonio and began spending a lot 342 00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:47.599 of time on the ward during visiting hours and began 343 00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:51.480 to interfere with his treatment. About the time that he 344 00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:54.039 had accepted the fact that yes, he should get out 345 00:22:54.039 --> 00:22:56.720 of the Air Force, when she showed up, he began 346 00:22:56.759 --> 00:23:01.200 to fight his discharge again, and they enlisted the help 347 00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:04.960 of their congressman from Michigan, and when he made a 348 00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:09.960 congressional inquiry. Congressional inquiries in the military really get people 349 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:15.640 spun up, and there's a lot of speculation that just 350 00:23:15.720 --> 00:23:19.680 the inquiry made by the congressman made the people in 351 00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:23.200 the Air Force problem go away by allowing him to 352 00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:28.519 stay in the military. So he was discharged from that 353 00:23:29.720 --> 00:23:35.440 inpatient psychiatric ward and allowed to be stationed at another 354 00:23:36.599 --> 00:23:38.720 Air Force base in New Mexico. 355 00:23:40.839 --> 00:23:45.559 You in this book, sorry, you include in this book 356 00:23:46.319 --> 00:23:51.880 the journals from Dean Melberg. And so every time he 357 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:54.720 has a mental health meeting with the doctor, and the doctor, 358 00:23:54.880 --> 00:24:00.440 as you write, reinforces that again they kept with striking 359 00:24:00.440 --> 00:24:03.200 about this, is that how many times he complains and 360 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:05.799 tries to go over the head of someone else again 361 00:24:05.880 --> 00:24:09.720 fixated on that the roommate threatened to break his alarm 362 00:24:09.759 --> 00:24:14.880 clock and the roommate and he saw this as akin 363 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:18.319 to the atrocities of the Holocaust. So these people were 364 00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:24.480 stunned that this reasonably intelligent guy exhibited this kind of disturbance, 365 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:28.240 and they tried. It seems amazing how many people tried 366 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:30.759 to talk him out of this, and then each time 367 00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:34.119 that they realized that there was this person had a 368 00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:38.400 serious mental illness that could not be abated. He refused meds, 369 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:42.759 he refused any kind of therapy, so they wanted to 370 00:24:42.759 --> 00:24:46.039 discharge them. So it's amazing all the efforts and all 371 00:24:46.079 --> 00:24:50.640 the people you talk about, specifically the doctors that make 372 00:24:51.079 --> 00:24:56.680 reports that he is especially concerned with, and as you 373 00:24:57.000 --> 00:24:59.720 put in the book, he writes in his journal afterwards 374 00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:04.440 about his interpretation or his feelings about that meeting with 375 00:25:04.519 --> 00:25:07.240 those doctors. So can you tell us about doctor Brigham 376 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:11.440 and his meeting with Melburgh. 377 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:16.920 Sure? Yeah, it's pretty amazing to get one person side 378 00:25:16.920 --> 00:25:20.119 of it, like the doctors or his roommate, where they 379 00:25:20.119 --> 00:25:23.359 have a benign conversation with him, and then you go 380 00:25:23.400 --> 00:25:27.640 and read Milburgh's journal entries about that same conversation and 381 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:35.119 how threatening he perceived that benign conversation to be. It's 382 00:25:35.160 --> 00:25:41.079 disturbing and pretty frightening. Doctor Brigham, he was a very 383 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:48.599 gifted psychiatrist, and he was the loudest voice as far 384 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:53.880 as determining that Melburgh was a danger. He specifically put 385 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:57.920 in the medical records that followed him to the psychiatric 386 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:02.640 ward that they consider this patient dangerous, But not too 387 00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:05.920 many of the other doctors seemed to pick up on 388 00:26:06.160 --> 00:26:13.880 that as much as doctor Brigham did. He Doctor Brigham 389 00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:16.519 could see that that he was a threat and did 390 00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:20.519 all he could to make the other doctors realize that 391 00:26:20.599 --> 00:26:22.759 so that they could get him discharged from the Air Force. 392 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:25.839 But it didn't didn't seem to happen. 393 00:26:29.559 --> 00:26:36.039 What was his what was his interaction with doctor London 394 00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:38.920 and what was his diagnosis? 395 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:41.200 HM. 396 00:26:41.799 --> 00:26:44.759 They were both both doctor London and doctor Brigham. They 397 00:26:45.079 --> 00:26:48.519 worked as a team. Doctor London was a psychologist and 398 00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:51.880 doctor Brigham was the psychiatrist there at Fairchild, and I 399 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:54.240 think they were both pretty much in agreement to the 400 00:26:54.279 --> 00:26:59.079 two doctors about Melbourg being needing to be discharged from 401 00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:06.960