Chapter 10
Again it
was 9 PM by the time they were climbing down the ladder. The unusual situation
was becoming routine to them after their several descents, and in a few minutes
they were on the floor of the round room. Jarom had packed his lock pick set in
his backpack, but they headed for the northwest exit to see where the last of
the tunnels went. According to the map Jared had made, Coleman Barracks was in
that general direction, but it was a long ways off. He measured it at about 4 miles. Coleman
Barracks had the airfield for the US Army installations around Mannheim, as
well as the “Military Detention Facility”, or otherwise known as the US military
prison for all of Europe. The eastern edge of Coleman Barracks bordered the
Kafertal Wald.
Walking
briskly down this broad passageway, John estimated it would take about 1½ hours
to walk that far, if that is where the tunnel led. They had only covered about a mile and a half
when they saw that a metal staircase had been fit into a cavity in the rock at
the side of the tunnel that extended up as far as their lights could see. There
was a locked steel grating pulled down over the stairway entrance, and there
were recent signs of use.
John said, ”I bet that the
footprints we‘ve seen belong to the person at the top of those stairs. He even
stole our ladder! Who could he be?”
“I don’t know,” remarked Jarom,
“but I don’t want to be found. He may be some kind of guard that could capture
us.”
“I don’t know either, and I don’t
want to find out either,” said Jason. “Let’s go!”
They continued their hike through
the darkness broken only by the glow of their headlamps. They talked softly as
they walked along the slightly-snaking corridor.
“I don’t know what we’re going to
find down here, but it can’t be anything like the doors in the IG Farben tunnel,”
groused Jarom.
An hour went by and they had heard
nothing from their younger siblings in some time. Jason and Allie were trailing behind, unused
to hiking night after night.
“Hey, you two! Are you still with us?” queried Jarom.
“Yes,” they chorused. They were
tired, but they weren’t about to be left out of exploration of another unknown
tunnel. They just knew that there would be something to find at the end of this
one.
Sure enough, at the end of the
passage, they came to a now familiar ladder. John pulled the rope out of his
backpack and Jarom picked up the rock with the kite string attached and threw
it over his target on a first attempt. He pulled the rope through the bottom
rung and down again. Rather than trying to climb up a doubled rope, this time
John, Jason and Allie held it fast while Jarom climbed up to the ladder. Once
he was on the ladder, he pulled up the loose end and wrapped it around the
steel support, and then John, Allie and Jason climbed up in turn.
The bottom of this shaft didn’t
appear any different than the two they had already become familiar with, but
the top of the shaft was much different. Rather than ending in a wooden door,
it seemed that the hinges were fastened to a concrete slab. The seat for the
slab was a welded steel frame, and there were springs attached to the hinge to
help lift the door. With all four of
them stationed one after the other at the top of the ladder, Jarom unlatched
the lock on the hinges and applied upward pressure to the cement door. Even with the springs returning to their
unstretched shape that they had not assumed in many years, it was all Jarom
could do to get the door to begin moving. As the door opened, cool air rushed
in and the further it opened, the easier it was to open. The vertical position
was even maintained by the now nearly passive springs. Jarom poked his head
above the level of the opening to find that he was not in a building, but that
he was on the very edge of an airport runway; between some buildings and the runway.
It was dark and appeared safe, so he and the other children climbed out into
the night air and pushed the door shut enjoying a few moments of fresh breeze
blowing across their faces. They looked around from where they sat and noticed
a familiar American flag in front of the terminal building. While he had seen
an airfield on the map of Coleman Barracks, he was still more-than-surprised to
be there.
It was just after 11PM and he had
begun to think that they had better return to the hatch when the runway lights
flashed on and in the distance they could see the landing lights of an aircraft
turning in toward the airfield on its final approach. By that time they heard
the thump, thump, thump of a helicopter’s rotor blades pounding against the air.
The lights grew brighter and brighter as the aircraft approached, blinding
them. The helicopter slowly progressed down the runway before turning in to its
parking area. It was so close, they felt as if they could have reached out and
touched it as it passed slowly by. They had even backed a few steps away from
the runway as it closed in on them. Then the helicopter seemed to stop and turn
directly toward them. It hovered for a minute and then turned back parallel
with the runway and continued its approach. They stood to watch as it passed
by, and then stepped back toward the runway when they began to hear sirens and
see flashing lights coming from the terminal.
It was obvious that they had been spotted and
there was nothing else they could do.
Emergency vehicles were screaming out to meet them. MPs piled out of the
police vehicle carrying M-16s and ran straight for them. Not knowing what else
to do and without consulting each other, they simultaneously raised their hands
in the air. The MP who seemed to be in charge, a Staff Sergeant, ordered them
to lie on the ground face down with their arms and legs extended outward. The
Military Police officers searched their backpacks and made sure that they were
not carrying any weapons, and then allowed them to get up. The sergeant
requested their identification and each produced their military ID card. He
compared the picture on the card with each face, shining the light glaringly into
their eyes, and then told them to get into the vehicle. They did as they were
told. Allie was crying and Jason was
also beginning to break down. The driver delivered them to the MP station in
the Air Terminal in only a few minutes, and they were ordered to follow one MP
while another marched behind them with his M-16 at port arms. They were put in
a small room with a table and chairs and asked to sit down and told to
wait. In a little while, a Lieutenant
Colonel opened the door and walked into the room. He was clearly unhappy to be there and unhappy
with the circumstances that brought him there.
The children had been around the Army their whole lives, and the older
two at least recognized the insignia on his collar that identified him as an MP
Officer, and the name plate on his uniform read Jebson.
“Well,” he said. “Let’s hear the
story. Why would 4 American kids be
standing on the edge of my runway at 11 o’clock PM.
The moment of truth had come. They
had wrestled with it privately, but had not been able to talk about it since
they had been discovered. The question was whether to tell the truth or to try
and fabricate a story. There was no chance that they would be able to walk out
of there without their father being called, and yet they felt as if the secret
of the tunnels was still their secret.
They were ready to share it with their Dad if they were pressed, but with the
Army? With the Germans? They just didn’t know. As the oldest, John felt a sense
of responsibility and the others, glad to give it to him, waited for him to
answer.
The MP Colonel should have known
better, of course. The proper course of action would have been to separate them
and interview them individually. He would have surely gotten at the truth in
short order, even if he wouldn’t have believed it. He could see he had four
scared kids who knew they were where they shouldn’t have been, and one of them
was a sobbing 10 year old girl! He was going for the semi-soft approach.
John answered for them all, “Well
you see, sir, we live in Ben Franklin Village and we were walking in the Wald
this afternoon and got lost. We were lost and scared and finally wound up
coming out of the forest into some farm fields and we saw the airfield through
the fence. We knew the Army had an airfield here and we felt like we had found
home. We followed the fence around but couldn’t get to a gate, so we finally
found a place we could hop the fence and started walking along the airfield to
find someone to help us get home, when the helicopter saw us. And then we were
arrested and here we are.”
Except for some fairly large holes
in his story, it almost sounded believable. Security since 9/11 was very tight
the thought of the kids approaching a fenced, monitored and patrolled airfield
was barely plausible.
Still, giving them the benefit of
the doubt, he asked, “And just where did you climb the fence?”
Guessing, John pointed to the end
of the airfield and said, “Down there where the fence runs into the woods.” He
had seen on the map the orientation of the kaserne and guessed generally where
they must be.
The colonel had to admit that if
there was one place that they could possibly have climbed the fence, it would
have been in that sector. He made a mental
note to send some of his men to check the sector out in the morning and to cut
back the trees if they were too close to the fence. It was clear these children
were not trying to blow up his aircraft and his motivation was to get them back
to their parents, who he thought were probably frantic by now.
“Who is your father and where does
he work?” he asked, assuming that their father and not their mother was the
military member.
He had guessed right. “Major Frank
James, ”offered John while the others looked glumly on, knowing that this was
only the beginning of a bad night. “547th Engineer Battalion”.
“You mean he is assigned right here
on Coleman Barracks?” he asked rhetorically.
“Is he new? I must not have met him yet.”
Jarom chimed in, “Yeah. We’ve only been here a few weeks and we don’t
know our way around very well yet.”
“Okay” said the colonel. “Let’s
call him and get him over here. What’s your number?”
“Um, well, sir,” hesitated John. “Our
parents are out of town at a conference.”
“What! Well they certainly didn’t leave you
alone. Who’s responsible for you?”
“They left us in the care of our
neighbors, Col. And Mrs. Friedrickson,” admitted John.
“And you’re out exploring! They
must be panicked by now. I don’t suppose you have their number….?”
“No sir” answered John.
The colonel pulled out the post
directory and in short order found the phone number of the Friedricksons. He
dialed the number and was greeted by the sleepy voice of the Colonel.
“Good evening, Sir. This is LTC Jebson
on Coleman Barracks. I believe we’ve found something you’ve lost.”
“Is that so?” replied Col.
Friedrickson. “And just what have I lost that requires you to call and wake me
at midnight?”
“The James children have turned up
here on Coleman Barracks,” he said.
“That’s very nice, Colonel, but
shouldn’t you be calling their parents?”
“Well, sir. They told me that you
and Mrs. Friedrickson were responsible for them while their parents are out of
town,” he said with a questioning tone.
“We have been looking after them,”
said Col. Friedrickson, “but we were under the impression that their parents
had returned home already.” He paused and then continued, “Apparently that
isn’t so. Okay, Colonel. I’ll be out to
get them shortly, but I recommend you call their parents and let them know the
circumstances. I believe they have a cell phone with them and I assume that the
children should have the number.”
“Yes, sir. I will call them as soon as we hang up. We
are at the MP station in the Air Terminal. I’ll look forward to seeing you
soon, sir.”
“Yes, I’ll bet you will. Thank you Colonel and goodbye.”
Turning back to John, LTC Jebson
had lost his gentle touch. “It appears that you are unsupervised?”
“Well, sir, our parents were
supposed to be back yesterday, but they called and decided to sight-see on the
way home, and we just forgot to tell the Friedricksons.“
“So you are staying in your own
quarters alone?” He demanded.
“Yes sir,” answered John miserably.
“You have their cell phone number?”
“Yes sir, it’s 638-48018”
LTC Jebson dialed the call and in a
few moments it was answered by Major James himself.
“Major, This is LTC Jebson,
Military Police on Coleman Barracks. I have your children here who were
apprehended on the edge of an active runway.”
“What?” cried Frank in shock. “What
on earth are they doing there?”
“They claim to have become lost in
the forest and wound up outside our fence which they climbed and were
apprehended. I called Col. Friedrickson,
but he had assumed that you had returned home. He is on his way to pick them
up, but I suggest you travel back here so that you can properly supervise your
children.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll leave immediately.” He broke the connection and turned to his
wife.
“Well, sweetheart, we’ve now heard
from the police. And I’m sure that won’t
be the last I hear from the police. The children were apprehended after
climbing the fence onto the airfield at Coleman Barracks. The story they gave
was that they were lost in the woods. I knew there was something going on!”
“Now dear, we don’t know what
happened. We need to hear what the children have to say. We should get started for home, but first we
had better call Mrs. Friedrickson and apologize. We never should have relied on the children
to tell them we would be another two days. I won’t be able to look her in the
eye.”
She picked up the phone and dialed
the number that she had earlier programmed into her phone. When the call was
answered, she apologized profusely for the trouble that the children had caused
and for not calling to let her know they had extended their trip. Mrs.
Friedrickson accepted the call, but was coldly formal. She told Lacy that they
would put the children back in their quarters, and that they expected that she
and Frank would be home directly.
Frank and Lacy hurriedly packed
their suitcases, checked out of the hotel, and stowed them in the car. Baden-Baden
had been a wonderful break for them both. For the first time in a long time,
they had gotten to spend time with each other and be pampered with hot-water
pools and spas and massages and time alone. That was over. They got into the
car and started for home.
Baden-Baden was actually fairly
close; only a little more than an hour away. Frank drove fast and the traffic
in the early morning hours was light. They arrived home only a short while
after Col. Friedrickson returned with the children. The Colonel had deposited
the children and the lights were out, so Frank and Lacy figured they would have
to try and make amends the following day. For their own children, they would
find out what was going on tonight.
They entered the house and it was
as quiet as a tomb. The lights were off here too, but that was soon remedied.
Frank flipped on the lights in both bedrooms and told everyone that they would
fall out in the living room pronto. In a moment, the family was assembled
downstairs and Frank looked his over his offspring carefully. Other than being
scared to death, they were well enough. Lacy took Frank’s hand and squeezed it
meaningfully.
He looked at her and, biting his
tongue, said, “We would like a brief explanation of what has been going on
around here.”
The older boys were hesitant, but
Jason bubbled over saying, “Jarom and John found a tunnel and we walked miles
and miles in it and someone took our ladder and we climbed out of the tunnel
and we were right by where the helicopter landed and we got arrested.“
Allie was burying her head into her
mother’s lap and Lacy gave another meaningful look at her husband. It was
almost two in the morning and they had gotten what Frank had asked for; a brief
explanation of what had been going on. It had nothing to do with getting lost
in the woods. He took a deep breath and
calmed himself. He said, “Tomorrow is Friday. You will get up on time and go to
school. I will spend my day answering for your actions. If the post commander
hasn’t decided that you are to be returned to CONUS (Continental United States)
posthaste, then we will spend tomorrow evening and perhaps Saturday, if
necessary, receiving an explanation of your behavior. Now, without another
word, go and get into your beds.”
And without another word, each of
the children did exactly that.
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