An American Army Captain was literally snatched off the street in a section of Munich, Germany by armed men, thrown into a car and was driven away. My team (See - Six Random Guys Thrown Together For A Job) was called in to join numerous other agents and law enforcement personnel to investigate and to find and rescue the officer.
Digging into the circumstances of the abduction, it was determined that it was a case of mistaken identity. He was a Finance Officer on his way to visit another Army officer for dinner and was grabbed just outside the officer’s apartment. His host was part of an anti-aircraft missile unit with access to classified information about various missiles being used in West Germany and was the likely target. However, they were both close to the same age, were the same height, weight, build and hair color and each of them would have matched the same written description.
There were probably 100 or more people investigating the abduction, questioning confidential informants, running down leads and rumors, etc. A picture evolved that indicated the abductors were Bulgarian agents who were new to the Munich area and, in the normally heavy-handed Bulgarian way, thought they could pry classified anti-aircraft missile information out of this missile officer. In the process, they got the wrong man, who could tell them little or nothing about missiles, but probably a lot about the mysteries of U. S. Army finance.
An anonymous tip was received that they were holding the American officer in a house in the suburbs of Munich and we were assigned to check it out. After keeping the house under surveillance for some time, it was clear that something odd was going on there, and we got permission (and the assistance of a number of West German policemen with a search warrant) to go in. The house was surrounded, Dieter and a policeman broke down the door and we entered. Shots were fired and, in the ensuing melee, I got hit in the left thigh with the bullet going completely through the fleshy part of my leg. The American Army officer was rescued, a little the worse for wear, two Bulgarians were killed at the scene and three others arrested. Kurt, who had shot and killed the Bulgarian who had shot me, gave me first aid until the ambulance arrived and I was taken to the hospital. I was released the next day.
About a week later, we got a visit at our office from the Deputy Commander, U. S. Armed Forces Europe and one of the Assistant Directors of the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA). We were all given awards and citations for the rescue, including, in my case, my first Meritorious Service Medal. I remember the American General saying that I should be getting a Purple Heart Medal but since I had been shot in Germany and not in Vietnam, they couldn’t authorize one. The actual public written citation for the Medal was written in such a way that was so ambiguous you really couldn’t figure out why I got the Medal – typical behavior for when you were in the Cloak-And-Dagger world of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence. As typical of that time, very little real information got into the media (I believe the German media reported the whole thing as German police arresting bank robbers or something similar). After over 40 years, I don’t think I’ll get in trouble for talking about it now – even though some of it might still be classified information.
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