Adelbert Ridgeway Brink was born on October 5, 1913 in Jamestown, NY. As a teenager, he enjoyed machinery, sports, girls, cars and aviation. As a young man, he raced cars on dirt tracks. During his years racing, he acquired the nickname of "Gunner" as his friends in the stands would yell for him to "gun her" to pass another car. Gunner had a true love of machinery. He owned several corvettes. He rode motorcycles as a young man and continued to ride well into his 8o's.
He obtained his private pilots license while still in high school. Several friends bought an old airplane and together received flight instruction. When he went for his first solo flight, his instructor said, "It's your airplane and your ass, don't break either one of them". He learned well as he spent several years performing acrobatics and barnstorming after obtaining his advanced ratings.
Prior to the U.S. entering WWII, the Army Air Corps had a contract to train British men to be fighter pilots. Gunner signed on and became a flight commander based in Clewiston, Florida. He taught RAF pilots in the advanced trainer, the AT-6. He remained friends with many of them afterwards.
After the war, he was hired by Eastern Airlines as a co-pilot on a DC-3. During his 30 years at Eastern, he flew many airplanes from the DC-3 to the L-1011. He was proud to be called "Captain Brink"!!!
Gunner always retained his love of flying and his desire to learn. His pilots license shows 12 type ratings on various transport size aircraft. It was a sad day when he was "kicked out" of the airline profession in 1973 at age 60. During his 30 years in the airline business, he made many friends and flew thousands of hours on numerous different aircraft. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker ran Eastern Airlines and was a friend to Gunner.
I was fortunate to learn aviation skills from Captain Brink, earning my private pilots license from him in 1972. I am now a Captain for a major U.S. airline and I am proud to say Captain A.R. "Gunner" Brink is my father.
His other children are Mike, Carol, Dan and Bill. The love of his life is his wife of over 60 years, Mary Martin Brink.