Before arrest with 303 gold bars, CIA officer spun tale he was Top Gun fighter pilot

David Rush’s former firefighter colleagues looked up to him as an ace pilot. Now they wonder whether he was making it all up “like Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Catch Me If You Can.’”

More than 15 years ago, the Ashburn Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department in Northern Virginia welcomed a new recruit whom many members would come to admire: a military man named David Rush.

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He wasn’t just highly intelligent. He was also capable, calm under pressure and a physical specimen, according to interviews with a half-dozen former Ashburn volunteer firefighters.

“The David Rush I remember, he was chiseled,” said Jeff Bellmer, a retired lieutenant at the department. “Big back, skinny waist, fit.”