 After seeing another soldier called Weird Larry go crazy and commit suicide by jumping out of a helicopter, Gordon had enough of the war and deserted (with only three weeks remaining on his tour of duty, all Stateside, where he was to be processed for discharge, with no further combat obligations).He spent the next several years hiding out under assumed names, which explains why most of his colleagues at WKRP didn't know his real name at first.While he was on the lam, Gordon became a New Orleans schoolteacher and worked part-time as a disc jockey under the name "The Duke of Funk."