The Drunk Bombing of Naco
American soil has been attacked from the air a few times, with Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks being the best known instances. However, the first time America was attacked from the air happened in 1929, in the town of Naco, Arizona. Fighting from a rebellion in Mexico spilled over across the border, and a possibly drunk mercenary pilot, hired to bomb Mexican forces, bombed an American town instead.
In the late 1920s, rebels in northern Mexico rose up against the Mexican government in what came to be known as the Escobar Rebellion. During the fighting, Mexican government forces, or federales, entrenched in the Mexican border town of Naco, in the state of Sonora. Their positions lay directly across the border from the American town of Naco, Arizona.
The locals in American Naco and the surrounding region came to view the conflict in Mexican Naco as a spectator event. Sightseers arrived from miles around, to take up advantageous positions from which they could view the view the gun battles between Mexican government and rebel forces. Many even crossed into Mexican Naco, for a better look. It did not seem foolhardy at the time, particularly as combatants from both sides, fearful of US military intervention, were careful not to fire across the border or unnecessarily endanger the gringos. Still, the occasional stray shot flew by, which only added to the spectators’ thrill and excitement.
Things got too exciting, however, in April of 1929, when the rebels hired a mercenary barnstormer pilot, an Irishman named Patrick Murphy, to drop homemade bombs on the federales trenches. On April 2nd, 1929, he dropped two bombs near federales positions, that turned out to be duds, before finally striking a Mexican customs house. Shrapnel peppered crowds of American spectators gathered in nearby salons and clubs in Mexican Naco, causing them to rush back to the American side of the border.
It has widely been rumored that Murphy was flying while drunk, which explains why, soon thereafter, he dropped a bomb on American Naco. Over the next few days, as he flew further bombing raids, Murphy frequently missed the Mexican trenches, and ended up bombing Naco, Arizona. His bombs on the US side of the border destroyed a car parked in a garage, blew up a general store, shattered numerous windows, damaged a US Post Office, and inflicted some injuries, none of them life threatening.
The drunk bombing reign of terror finally ended on April 6th, 1929, when a lucky shot from a federales rifle struck the engine of Murphy’s plane. Trailing white smoke, Murphy managed a crash landing, then sprinted to the rebel lines, and from there crossed into the US. He was arrested by American soldiers and taken to a Nogales jail, but was never charged. US Army detachments, plus a fighter squadron, were sent to Naco, but by the time they got there the rebels had already been defeated, and the fighting was over.