Former U.S. POWs Want Out of Army
By CATHERINE STRONG
01:31 AM ET 09/16/99
WASHINGTON (AP) - The American soldiers, hearts pounding, hands behind heads,
dropped to their knees. The Serb captors placed guns to the back of the prisoners' heads.
Staff Sgt. Christopher Stone wondered if he would be executed. Spc. Steven M. Gonzales
thought, ``Am I going to see one of my friends get shot in the head?'' In the ensuing
week, the POWs, hooded, handcuffed and legs bound, endured beatings, interrogations and
death threats as NATO's air war against Yugoslavia raged overhead. After 32 days of
isolation, they were released in May and welcomed home as heroes.
They said the experience changed their priorities, turning soldiers who recently
had re-enlisted into men intent on quitting the Army, getting a college education and
rebuilding their lives, they said in an interview this week with The Associated Press,
marking their first extensive public comments about their captivity and future plans.
But, so far, they're running into red tape. Their resignations were cleared through
Army command in Europe in July, but Pentagon officials have given them no clear answer on
whether they will be released from service, the soldiers said.
``We're kind of in limbo,'' Stone said. ``We're waiting, biding our time, as day
after day goes by.''
``I'm waiting on this decision to know what I can do,'' said Gonzales, who has
scholarships lined up that would pay his tuition at Texas A&M.
Stone, Gonzales and a third American soldier who was captured with them, Staff
Sgt. Andrew Ramirez, said their division commander and other Army officials told them they
had their choice of assignments when they returned from 30 days leave from their base in
Germany to visit their families in the United States - including resigning from the
active-duty military.
Ramirez has been granted a transfer effective Oct. 3 to Fort Irwin in Barstow,
Calif., where he will finish his last year in the Army near family in Los Angeles before
planning to return to college, he said.
Martha Rudd, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said she could not confirm
what Army officials told Stone and Gonzales about their options. She said such requests
for early release are rare and take time to make their way through the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, Stone said he would like to join the National Guard, which has
offered him a scholarship in his home state of Michigan to attend a state college there.
Gonzales said he, too, would like to continue to serve part-time in the
military, joining the guard or reserves in Texas.
Both Stone, 25, and Gonzales, 22, had re-enlisted for several years shortly
before they were abducted March 31 near the Macedonian border, where they were on lightly
armed patrol in a Humvee vehicle. The soldiers were released May 2, seven weeks before
NATO bombings ended, halting a bloody war against ethnic Albanians in Yugoslavia's Kosovo
province. ``It was a shock,'' said Gonzales.
The three were ambushed by about 20 Yugoslav soldiers who fired about 50 rounds
at their Humvee. Outgunned, with their engine smoking and believing their gunner had been
shot, the American soldiers showed their hands and slowly emerged from their vehicle,
thinking perhaps friendly Macedonians had mistakenly fired upon them.
They were knocked to the ground by their Serb captors and kicked in the head and
body. Stone got a broken nose and Ramirez two broken ribs. All three suffered broken or
chipped teeth and abrasions on their heads and wrists. Ramirez's abrasions on his wrists
from the handcuffs were so deep that deep red marks from the cuts are still visible.
The were given little food and water and allowed to go to the bathroom only once
a day at first.
Ramirez, 24, said he and the others started to hallucinate. ``I thought I saw
some fellow soldiers. I called out to one.'' Stone added, ``You're almost in a daze, in a
fog.'' After a week of beatings, the soldiers were moved to tiny solitary confinement
cells and treated more humanely. Their hands and feet were freed. There was more food and
only sporadic beatings.
The three soldiers were interviewed together this week in the Washington area,
where they were honored with an award from a veterans' group and met with Energy Secretary
Bill Richardson. Stone and Gonzales notified the 1st Infantry Division of their decisions
to quit the service in June and their requests to leave the Army were approved in July by
Maj. Gen. David L. Grange, the division commander. They also were approved by Gen.
Montgomery Meigs in Europe, according to the soldiers.
By ty talked briefly to Army Secretary Louis Caldera on Sunday and to Sgt. Major
Robert Hall on Monday, and both said the requests were pending but did not say whether
they would be granted.
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who traveled to Yugoslavia to gain the
soldiers' freedom, said the Pentagon should honor commitments officials made to the
soldiers. ``They are heroes,'' he said. ``When soldiers are prisoners of war, it is
standard operating procedure to allow them to make a transition. That should be honored.''
Rudd, the Army spokeswoman, said early leave was granted in special
circumstances but there were no specific categories of circumstances, such as being a
former POW, that would make approval nearly automatic.
Grange was unavailable for comment since he had recently left his post in
anticipation of retiring, Army public affairs in Europe said.
In a prominent case in 1995, Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady was shot down over
Bosnia and was forced to hide about a week in the Bosnian countryside near hostile forces,
eating ants and bugs, until he was rescued.
Within three months of his rescue, O'Grady was allowed to leave Aviano Air Base
in Italy for a part-time reserve position with the 419th Fighter Wing in Utah.
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