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 three infantry tours in Vietnam 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. 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 rode 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 Campbell Barracks– our base -
right away. Usually I just rode through the front gates.
This time, I was stopped. When I showed by ID, the
MPs asked where I worked. I told them IDHS and
was allowed in.. As I was crossing the parade ground,
I saw one of the guys I worked with and asked him
what was going on. He said, "Peck and Woodward and Captain Bonner are dead."
The Ford 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 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," a drama about Ulrike
Meinhof's radicalization, was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2008.
Part 2
There's a next chapter to this tale. I met a German girl not too
long 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 had counted among its residents RAF members
and other crazies. So she was secretly sleeping with the enemy in
Heidelberg while hanging with the reds in Berlin.
Later, she had adventures of her own. She became a cab driver with
"clients" she would carry back and forth between East and West,
crooks trading in marks and dollars and she was their driver of choice.
Now she's a physical therapist living happily in Freiburg. I saw her last
year when I went to Italy and we still talk every couple of weeks via Skype.
Part 3
And now, a new chapter.
A few weeks ago, I received an email from Clyde Bonner’s son Chuck. He was seven years old when
his father was killed. He has been collecting information about the incident and found me by way of
his research. We got to talk on the phone and I shared with him my memories of his dad before and
on that day. He’s a diver in the oil fields in the Louisiana gulf. He’s a good guy and I’m glad he found
me so we can talk and I make my contribution.
Something that didn't really occur to me until I started talking to Chuck was that I could have easily
stopped to talk to Captain Bonner about the new car. But I was in a hurry to get out of there before
my CO changed his mind. And because of that, I am here tonight to write this. To this day, I
sometimes entertain feelings of guilt, which I’ve heard is common with those who dodge bullets that
take others.
In any case, it's strange to say that I was there at all. I never quite get used to that, even though the
memories linger so clearly.
David Fulmer
August 20th, 2010
| My Strange History with the Baader-Meinhof Gang |
| Sp5 Fulmer - 1972 |
