years later, brace (then a captain) crashed his t-28 trojan into a cornfield near the mouth of the choptank river near cambridge, maryland during a training flight on 3 january 1961. he fled the scene but turned himself in ten days later once his empty flight-suit was found hidden in vegetation. brace faced a court-martial and was charged with deliberately crashing his aircraft and faking his death so that his wife patricia could collect insurance money to pay off debts. brace pleaded guilty to "unauthorized absence" and was acquitted of the deliberate destruction of his aircraft. the court-martial ended his military career.