Part 1
In the spring of 1972, I was in the Army, stationed at an intelligence unit in Heidelberg, Germany.
I had just moved into an apartment on the economy. I was supposed to work late on the evening of May 24th,
but at the last minute, my CO told me to go ahead and leave, as we were caught up on the documents and
photos we were analyzing. As to how a former pot-smoking, anti-war- marching street punk got a Top Secret
security clearance, your guess is as good as mine.
On my way out, I saw Captain Clyde Bonner. He had done two infantry tours in Viet Nam and had come out
without a scratch. He liked to rag me about my haircut (or lack thereof) but it was really just a joke between us.
He wasn't the type of care. He was showing his new Jaguar to Ron Woodward, another guy who worked in the
building. Afterwards, it struck me that Bonner had been unusually somber that entire day.
My bike was leaning in against the building in front of a German Ford sedan I hadn't seen before. I pushed it
between the cars on my way to leaving.
As I rod home, I heard something that sounded like thunder. Since the Army didn't know I had an apartment, it
took a while for someone to catch up with me with a message to get back to the Kaserne – our base - right
away.
Usually I just rode through the front gates. This time, I had to show my ID and explain my way in. As I was
crossing the parade ground, I saw one of the guys I worked with and ask him what was going on. He said,
"Peck and Woodward and Captain Bonner are dead."
The Ford sitting outside the building had been a car bomb. When it went off, the blast killed Bonner and
Woodward instantly and with horrible carnage. It was so powerful that it blew the steel door into the building
off the hinges and the impact killed Charlie Peck, who had been inside getting ready to leave. The bomb also
made a foot-deep crater in the courtyard bricks and knocked down the wall of the office where I would have
been sitting had I not gone home early.
Since it was secure area, the enlisted men, myself included, were given the task of cleaning up the destruction in
the days after.
The reason for this tale? The bomb had been set by a group called the Baader-Meinhof Gang. They were RAF
(Red Army Faction) and responsible for a string of kidnappings and bombings in Germany around that time.
"The Baader Meinhof Complex," the drama about them, has been nominated for a Golden Globe.
It's weird to say that I was there. I was, and as you can see, it's still with me. To this day, I feel a little guilty,
which I've heard is common to those who dodge fatal bullets that take others.
In any case, this piece of history has generated interest for the last thirty-five years. There are numerous
websites dedicated to the story, the most prominent being www.baader-meinhof.com.
Part 2
There's another chapter to this tale.
I met a German girl not too longer after this happened.
She became my girlfriend, though there was much drama. She would disappear
for a week here and there, sometimes to home, sometimes to Berlin. Eventually,
we split apart and lost touch.
After twenty-some years, I tracked her down and connected with her again.
And found out that while she was in Berlin, she had stayed in a commune
that counted among its residents RAF members or whatever
anarchists would be called. So she was secretly sleeping with the enemy
in Heidelberg while hanging with the red crazies in Berlin.
Later, she had adventures of her own. She became a cab driver in Berlin and
had "clients" she would carry back and forth between East and West. They
were crooks trading in marks and dollars and she was their driver of choice.
Now she's a physical therapist, still living happily in southern Germany. I've seen
her a half-dozen times over the past few years, including in Italy last May.
| My History with the Baader-Meinhof Gang |
| Sp5 Fulmer - 1972 |