Ex-legislator guilty of illegally entering base


By Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic
March 17, 2001


A former state representative who posed as an active naval reservist to get a 1999 trip to the Balkans pleaded guilty Friday to one federal count of entering a military installation for an illegal purpose.


Thomas Birl Gordon, 43, a Mesa resident who served in the Arizona House as a Republican from Peach Springs in northwestern Arizona, will be sentenced May 25 in Phoenix by U.S. District Judge Virginia Mathis.

He faces up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Gordon, who is a lieutenant commander in the inactive naval reserves, was issued a congressional travel order after going to the office of Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz. Gordon said he was having trouble joining his unit in Bosnia-Herzegovina and he needed help catching a National Guard flight.

Colleagues in the Arizona Legislature, who believed Gordon was a Navy SEAL, gave him a big sendoff.

Gordon then flew to Germany and Albania from the Arizona Air Guard's 161st Air Refueling Wing at Sky Harbor International Airport.

But Gordon used bogus travel documents that appeared to be naval orders indicating he had been called to active duty.

After unsuccessfully trying to get SEAL units in the Balkans to activate him, Gordon disappeared for about five weeks before showing up in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was arrested by military authorities and transported back to Phoenix.

Quoted:

What on earth was he thinking?