He asked about my return to the States after it was all over.
Wallace: “You state that all the officers were separated from the Army afterwards. Including you?”
Me: “Yes. In some cases they were allowed to retire early. In others they were simply told that when their current time was up, not to bother asking to stay in. In my case I was told I was going to get a medical discharge. After I was released from Walter Reed Hospital, I went home and found that somebody had already packed up my personal possessions from my office and brought them over. I was not even offered the chance to pack up my own belongings. The only time I spent on base after that was either physical therapy at the hospital or when I received the medal and left the Army.”
Eventually he ran out of things to question me on. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen in editing, or if he was even going to check with any of the other guys in the drop. If he wanted to, he could edit this thing enough to make me look like a concentration camp commandant. Then we got to the summary.
Wallace: “Have you ever thought back to that day?”
Me: “I think about it every day. Every time I use my cane, I am reminded of the price I paid that day, and the price others paid, so that a General could look good. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had just said NO when we were ordered to get on the planes.”
Wallace: “Do you think that would have changed things?”
Me: “I don’t know. Maybe. I would have been arrested and court-martialed, but I could have beaten that. Maybe somebody else would have said no, too. If enough of us had done that, maybe he would have cancelled it. I just don’t know. Instead I went along, and we had a disaster. If you want to charge me with something, then charge me with letting my personal sense of courage and duty override the duty I had to those around me. That’s what I was really guilty of.”
After that I left and flew home. It was out of my hands now.
Chapter 133: ‘The Buckman Crisis’
Sunday, September 17, 2000
We flew home and I felt exhausted and drained. My very future was on the line and it seemed like the Fates were conspiring against me. By the time I got around to watching the news that night, we had gone international. Both Honduras and Nicaragua were demanding my head, although the U.S. could keep the other pieces. Honduras was screaming that I had defamed them somehow, even though I hadn’t made any public pronouncements at all. Nicaragua, now being run by the ‘Contras’ and not the Sandinistas, was still pretty volatile, and they were demanding I return and stand trial for invading their country and killing their citizens.
George Bush was still campaigning. The official message was that he had full faith and confidence in me and that the charges were a baseless political attack by the Clinton White House. I was working to prove these false claims were lies and wouldn’t be available for a few days while I did this. I had talked to George late Monday and told him my plans for today, and called him that Tuesday evening to let him know what had happened with 60 Minutes. We were expecting it to be broadcast on Sunday evening.
We were still trying to piece together who was doing this. It was much harsher and blunter than Clinton’s normal antics. I wondered if it was Carville. James Carville and Dick Morris had always been his go-to guys for dirty tricks, with Carville being the hammer and Morris being the velvet glove. Morris was gone, though, brought down by a prostitution scandal during the last election. This felt more like James Carville playing hard and fast with the truth, and consequences be damned. I was pretty sure it wasn’t Cheney or Rove, though. They didn’t want me around either, but the time to slit my throat was before the convention, not after.
Once I was back home, Marilyn and I had a long talk with the girls about what had happened back in 1981, and what was happening now. I warned them that it was going to get crazier before it got better, and told them not to talk to reporters. If anybody asked them questions they were to simply tell them to find me or their mother. It didn’t matter if it was a reporter, a teacher, or another student, but they weren’t supposed to talk about it. It was more than I could ask of them, but I needed their help. They were suitably impressed and made solemn oaths not to talk. I smiled over at their mother when they said that, and we sent them on their way. Charlie was back at sea now, heading towards Australia and amphibious training with the Aussies, and probably wouldn’t have a chance to call any time soon. We did get a few emails from him after the story broke, telling me he believed me and not the newspapers.
Wednesday proved to be a mixed bag. I stayed at home, but was on the phone all day. On the bad news side, Honduras recalled their ambassador for ‘discussions’ and Nicaragua decided to sever diplomatic relations with the United States. The evening news shows were now referring to this as ‘The Buckman Crisis’ and forecasting gloom and doom over our international relations with everybody south of the Rio Grande. Likewise, I was contacted by somebody from the Justice Department, asking me to come in for ‘discussions’, and I referred them to my lawyer, Tucker Potsdam, who I had instructed to sit on everything and stall them until I had this under control. The moment I showed up at any U.S. Attorney’s office, there would be flashbulbs and cameras, and the very real possibility of a perp walk. I needed to stay away from the Justice Department as long as possible.
On the plus side, however, I began to get some phone calls from retired soldiers all across the country, guys from both Bravo Battery and C Company. Initially they called my office in Congress, but after Marty heard about them, he called me. We had a rule that nobody got my home number, but this was the exception to the rule. They were to be called back and given my personal phone number. By early evening, as guys began drifting home from work and began getting messages to call a newspaper or television station, I began getting phone calls at home. By Wednesday various news organizations were using their own sources to dig up names and addresses of people who might know something.
I have to admit, there was a tremendous feeling of relief as I answered some of these calls. No matter how much of a cloud I had gone out with, almost all of the calls were offering support, even from the guys I had never had contact with. When they asked what they should do, I told them to tell the truth, especially if 60 Minutes came calling. The only way I could survive was if some of the guys who had been there that day said so and said it was all bullshit.
Thursday and Friday simpler got louder and stranger. My prepared statement that Governor Bush had full faith and confidence in me was wearing thin. By Thursday evening CBS was running promotional ads with video of Mike Wallace questioning me in a menacing manner, and promising that Sunday night was going to be a special broadcast. I took that as a good thing. If it had been the standard 15 minute segment, then it meant they weren’t getting any rebuttal witnesses. Meanwhile, the Justice Department announced they were considering charges related to both war crimes and civil rights violations. It seemed that drug dealers in foreign countries had American constitutional rights; whether I still had any was under discussion.
It was becoming clear that 60 Minutes was talking to some of the guys who had made the jump and wanted them to do a taped interview. I got a couple of calls from guys asking what they should do and I told them to do the interview and simply be honest. If they were asked what they saw, and they didn’t see anything, then say it. The most interesting guy who called was Alex Briscoe, the senior sergeant on the plane. He had retired after the Gulf War as an E-8 Master Sergeant. We talked about what was going on, and he told me what he had been hearing as well. He was tied in with some old timer non-coms and they passed around news and such. Several of the non-coms had been contacted by the Justice Department and warned against speaking on camera, as it might be considered interference with an ongoing investigation. I found that quite interesting. I asked him to call some of those guys back and get me some names and phone numbers, and not to worry about the Justice Department. I would handle that.