Sunday, April 15, 2001

By Dave Ornauer, Stars and Stripes

Andrew Ramirez and Steven Gonzales feel a special connection to the 24 EP-3E crewmembers detained for 12 days in China.

On April 1, the Navy surveillance aircraft was forced to land on Hainan Island after colliding with a Chinese fighter. Two years and a day before that, Ramirez, Gonzales and another soldier, Christopher Stone, were taken prisoner during the NATO campaign in Kosovo.

"It’s a little eerie, since it happened around the same time frame," Ramirez said by telephone from his home in Baldwin Park, Calif.

"You’re on a routine patrol, something happens, and you end up in the hands of another country."

Ramirez watched Thursday as the EP-3E crewmembers stepped off their repatriation aircraft onto the tarmac at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii.

Vivian Ramirez felt the same connection to the incident as her son, having agonized and worried every moment of his 32 days in captivity.

"I felt great, relieved. I was happy for them," she said, adding that since her son’s ordeal, she follows "anything that has to do with the military and the world.

"I was concerned about it, thinking of the families and how they must feel."

Gonzales recalled what he felt when he stepped off a plane in Germany to a emotionally charged welcome after captivity in the Balkans.

"The flood of emotion, happiness and overjoy, the feeling that so many people were behind us and supporting us, it was the same as for the 24 [Navy crewmembers], I’m sure," Gonzales said by phone from Texas.

A brief ceremony for the EP-3E crew Thursday morning in Hawaii evoked memories of Gonzales’ and Ramirez’s ordeal and repatriation. They were captured in Serbia during Operation Allied Force.

Ramirez, then an Army staff sergeant, Gonzales, a specialist, and Stone, a staff sergeant, were kidnapped while on patrol just inside Macedonia, three miles from the Kosovo border.

While the EP-3E crew was kept together and allowed to see U.S. diplomats four times, "We were kept separated," Ramirez said. "Those were wartime conditions. We were not allowed to speak or see anybody from the U.S."

For the first seven days, the three soldiers were hooded and cuffed, forced to lie on the floor and allowed to speak only when spoken to.

"We were not treated very well," Ramirez said. "The first seven days were terrible."

Serb officials at first said the three had crossed into Serb territory and intended to try them as criminals. They were kept for another 25 days, during which time Ramirez said he kept his mind active. "Anything to keep busy," he said.

"I walked around the cell a lot, did push-ups, thought of family. It takes a lot, but you have to do what you can to keep busy."

Intense negotiations and the intervention of the Rev. Jesse Jackson led to the release of the three soldiers, stationed at Schweinfurt, Germany.

Vivian’s first glimpse of her son after the ordeal was on television.

"I hadn’t heard anything," she said. "He looked good. I was happy to see him, but sad that he was in captivity."

Being released does not mean the end of the episode, Ramirez said. Debriefing comes next, the type that the 24 EP-3E crewmembers began on the plane trip from China.

"It’s a long process, but a needed process because the information we have can help," Ramirez said, adding that such debriefing needs to be done quickly, while details are still fresh in their minds.

"But it’s a trying process. The 24 will be going through the same thing, perhaps longer than mine."

A big part of the debriefing, Gonzales said, is a physical and medical checkup, as well as the question-and-answer sessions.

"I’m sure they’ll be asked about the incident, [from the] viewpoint of each of the crewmembers," Gonzales said. "I’m sure they’ll be asked about how they were treated and questioned."

U.S. officials have not released details on the debriefing process.

Since then, Ramirez has traded in his active-duty uniform for one of the California National Guard and briefly dabbled in politics. The 26-year-old ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Baldwin Park, near Los Angeles. He also is a student at Citrus College in nearby Glendora and is hoping to major in psychology.

Ramirez said his psyche has not taken a pounding despite his captivity. He was stationed at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin in Barstow, Calif., after returning from Europe.

"They have air raid sirens there, and when I first heard those a couple of times, it would jog my memory," he said. "But I don’t dwell on it."

Stone, now in the Michigan Army National Guard, could not be reached for comment.

For military members who could be put in harm’s way, Gonzales advises them to stay calm and always keep the faith.

"Stay as calm as the situation permits, realizing we’re all trained to the extent that we can make it through the situation," said Gonzales, 24, now a student at Texas A&M and an intelligence analyst with the Texas National Guard.

"And never lose hope that your country is behind you."

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