Kidnapping the Battalion Commander

I was at a place called Fort Bragg, a young Intelligence Sergeant in the 1/505 Airborne Infantry. One day a staff officer came to me and said: “I have a mission for you; you know next week is the Battalion Change of Command.”  

I said “Yes Sir”, while wondering just what kind of detail I was going to be stuck with this time. 

‘Well,” said the captain, “we’re having a roast for the BC on Friday afternoon. We want you to get a detail together disguised as terrorists and kidnap the colonel from his office at gunpoint. The S2 is onboard with this.” 

This was because of the Battalion Commander’s past life in Special Forces. He was an evaluator on combat ready ARTEPs [Army Training and Evaluations Programs], specifically for a certain unit that does not exist on Fort Bragg, let alone the Army. I immediately said “Aye, Aye Sir,” (as I would occasionally do that reflecting because of an earlier life in the Marine Corps). I was also informed the S4 would approve any and all material requests for the mission, within reason.  

So, a ‘select’ group of volunteers were brought in for the mission. The first was one of company armorers, an avid weapons collector. In his Arms Room were two lockers for Personally Owned Weapons (POWs), one for everyone else in the company and his. This included everything from BIG game hunting rifles to the exotic Class III and collectible weapons. Using a store of OPFOR uniforms gained from the property disposal depot the missions was equipped and ready to go. For those who never strolled the peaceful, tree lined streets of Fort Bragg in the 1980s, before the current renovations, consider this. 

The Battalion HQ was on Ardennes Street directly across from the 82^nd Airborne Division Inspectors Generals office across a side street. The 82^nd Airborne Museum, and 3^rd Brigade Headquarters, and the Troop Medical Clinic that served family members in the afternoon were across Ardennes Street itself. Ardennes Street to this day is considered the ‘main street’ for the 82^nd Airborne.  

On the afternoon of the take-down the team assembled in a company’s day room wearing a variety of masks, large knives, and carrying everything from a Thompson Sub Machine Gun to a Heckler & Koch MP5. The raiders moved to their Initial Point at the end of barracks behind the Battalion Headquarters.  Coordination was previously made with a turncoat 2^nd Lieutenant who would distract the Battalion Commander till it was too late (and also coordinated with the 82^nd MP Co, that was important). 

The team was divided into ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ teams, which included a driver and car. The team then moved to the side the Headquarters building opposite from the Battalion Commanders office. In doing so the team had to transit behind the Headquarters of 1^st Bn, 508^th Infantry who was having a Friday afternoon officers call complete with adult beverages. (Remember this was the early 1980s.)

The professional discussions abruptly came to a halt and silence reigned. Their BC could be heard saying “S-2 go over to 1^st’05 and see what the fuck is going on!”

The S2 (CPT) being a professional MI officer replied, “Airborne Sir!!!, I’ve got my BICCO (2^nd Lieutenant Military Intelligence Officer – read as very expendable) moving on it now.” 

The take-down team was in place. The assault began with a prearranged signal. One person went in low seizing the Battalion Chaplain (who had NOT been warned) sitting on the BC’s sofa by putting the muzzle of the Thompson SMG square between his eyes. 

The 2LT turncoat was slammed against the wall by the number two man through the door. The Staff Sergeant put the muzzle of a .45 between the BC’s eye and said “Put your fucking hands up.” He then slammed thirty ‘pieces of silver into the out stretched hands of the turncoat officer saying to him “There’s your thirty pieces of silver; now get out before I change my mind!!!”

The BC glared at the turncoat and said, “You fucking Judas, you’ll pay for this.” Two more troops then hooded up the BC and secured his hands behind his back.

As we moved the hostage to exit the building all the 1SGs were watching from CSM Pross’s office, and the S3 shop (who had not been advised of the event) stared through an adjoining door way. The outside team had secured the front door and a path to the street and stopping all traffic on Ardennes. 

Upon exiting the Battalion Headquarters, the extraction vehicle pulled in with screaming tires from the Division Museum parking lot directly in front of the HQ with all four doors flying open on stopping. All traffic, foot and vehicle, came to halt as the spectacle of the BC being guided out of the Headquarters at gunpoint, bound and hooded.

The rest of the Battalion staff poured out of their offices, the officers from the other Battalion gathered in front of their HQ’s mouths agape. The entire staff of the Inspector General’s office stood in front of their office with their mouths agape. A school bus of students who had just left the Museum was stopped from exiting the parking lot behind the getaway car. Family members and staff from the Medical Clinic and the Brigade Headquarters piled out of the building to watch or watched from windows. (I have on good authority that the children on the bus and the family members have responded well to counseling and therapy in the years since.)

The Battalion Commander was loaded into the car; the weapons were loaded in the trunk, except for the .45 jammed into the BC’s ribs. The getaway car peeled away from the scene with screaming tires again. Preliminary interrogation immediately began focusing on his former association with a certain Charles Beckwith and other misadventures of his past. This continued until he was delivered to a pre-arraigned ransom site. 

Two cases of beer were exchanged for the Battalion Commander. The assault team then faded back into the obscurity from which it came.

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This first appeared in The Havok Journal on June 26, 2024.

Carl began his military career as a Marine Sergeant stationed in various locations, including Japan and Camp Pendleton, before shifting gears to become an Elementary Special Education teacher and working in EMS in Flagstaff in 1977. Opting out of Marine Corps duties in 1978, he joined the Army in January 1979, directly reporting to the Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca. Throughout the early 1980s, he served as a Middle East Analyst for the 82nd Airborne Division and later aided in preparing the deployment of the first US Battalion to the Multinational Force and Observers in February 1982.

Transitioning roles, he became a Middle East Analyst for XVIIIth Airborne Corps, contributing to Operation Urgent Fury. In 1984, he joined the Ranger Regiment and later attended the University of Maryland in Heidelberg, graduating in 1988. Assigned to 1st Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg in 1989, he found himself deploying to Desert Storm in 1990 as an Intelligence Sergeant. Post-war, he continued his service in various intelligence management roles, completing his MA in International Relations before retiring.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.