SAN DIEGO (KGTV) \u2014 Former Rep. Duke Cunningham, a decorated Navy pilot and Vietnam War veteran whose political career ended in a federal corruption scandal, died Wednesday at age 83. Retired Congressman Duncan L. Hunter released a statement Friday confirming Cunningham’s death. <\/p>\n
“Duke Cunningham, my friend and colleague, represented the very best of American Heros who go out to meet our enemies at the gates,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
Cunningham died from an undisclosed illness while living in Arkansas, according to a report from the San Diego Union-Tribune. He is survived by his wife and three adult children.<\/p>\n
The former congressman became a local hero after settling in San Diego following his military service in the late 1980s. Cunningham transitioned into local politics as a Republican in the 1990s, eventually serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
His political career came to an abrupt end in 2005 when he pleaded guilty to accepting millions of dollars in illegal bribes. Cunningham served eight and a half years in federal prison for the corruption charges.<\/p>\n
Before his fall from grace, Cunningham was known for his distinguished military service as a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War, earning recognition for his combat achievements. He earned the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars and a Purple Heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (KGTV) \u2014 Former Rep. Duke Cunningham, a decorated Navy pilot and Vietnam War veteran whose political…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":185527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,104152,4446,104153,50,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-185526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-congressman","tag-death","tag-duke-cunningham","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115114051120581712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}