Air Force veteran inspired ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’
In 1965 and 1966, Adrian Cronauer signed on at 6 a.m. from a Saigon studio as the morning DJ for Armed Forces Radio, waking up the troops with a signature line that became the title of a hit movie and has echoed through the years: “Good morning, Vietnam!”
He was an Air Force enlisted man with a golden voice and the aim of giving his listeners an auditory taste of home, with rockand-roll, soul music and a sassy irreverence that became the basis for the 1987 film that starred Robin Williams as Mr. Cronauer.
The movie took liberties with Cronauer’s real-life experiences, but the resemblance was close enough that it brought him a degree of celebrity.
Cronauer, a longtime broadcaster and advertising executive who later became a lawyer and a Defense Department official, died Wednesday at a nursing home near his home in Troutville, Va.. He was 79.
The death was confirmed by a daughter-in-law, Mary Muse, who declined to provide a specific cause.
At first, Cronauer had reservations about being portrayed on film, especially by such a flamboyant talent as Williams.
“I was afraid of what they were going to do to me and it took me a little while to get used to seeing someone named Adrian Cronauer up there on the screen,” Cronauer told the Associated Press in 1987. “But I saw it and I liked it.”
Williams’ antic character displayed a more subversive, anti-authoritarian bent than Cronauer did. Williams’ DJ ad-libbed monologues about sex, politics and absurd regulations and invented a variety of characters, including an imaginary designer of military uniforms: “Why not plaids and stripes? When you go into battle, clash!”
Still, there were similarities between the character and Cronauer: Both taught English to Vietnamese students and encountered reprimands from superior officers for shaking up the staid announcing style and bland musical playlist of military radio.
After Cronauer left Vietnam in 1966, later DJs — including future “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak — continued his show-opening shout of “Good morning, Vietnam!”
Cronauer, in the meantime, worked for a television station in Ohio before moving to Roanoke, Va., in 1967. For the next 12 years, he worked as a local TV anchor, FM-radio announcer and broadcast executive, but he seldom spoke about his days in Vietnam.
He moved to New York in 1979 to work as an announcer the classical music station WQXR. He also opened an advertising agency and did voice-over work.
Cronauer joined the Defense Department in 2001 as a special assistant on issues related to prisoners of war and missing military personnel. He retired in 2009 and settled in the southwestern Virginia town of Troutville.