The Generals (41 page)

Despite the orders to the contrary, all the Special Forces, wounded, as well as the bodies of the seven dead Green Berets, including that of Colonel Rudolph C. MacMillan, returned to Fort Bragg on the C5A aircraft that had carried them to the Far East. Colonel C. W. Lowell assumed responsibility for the action.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Sims, USAF, whom Colonel Lowell never saw at Dak Tae or on the
Forrestal
was reunited with his wife several weeks later, after a period of hospitalization and physical evaluation. He shortly afterward sued for, and was granted, a divorce on grounds of open and notorious adultery. As was the usual custom in such cases, he was awarded the custody of his children. He retired from the military service in 1980 as a Major General and Deputy Commander of the Air War College.

Colonel Rudolph G. MacMillan was buried, with full military honors, in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. In 1976, after President Carter made good his campaign promise to pardon draft evaders and deserters, Mrs. MacMillan mailed President Carter Colonel MacMillan’s decorations, including his Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Medal he had been posthumously awarded for his service in
OPERATION MONTE CRISTO
. She received the package back several weeks later, together with a form letter stating that the President could not accept a gift of military decorations no matter what the motives of the donor.

Lieutenant General Robert Bellmon died of cancer in 1976 in retirement in Carmel, California. Mrs. Barbara Waterford Bellmon was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Republican in 1978, and reelected in 1980, 1982, and 1984.

Major General Paul Hanrahan retired in 1974. He is now Associate Professor of Romance Languages at Utica State Junior College, Utica, New York.

The remains of Master Sergeant Pietr Petrofski were returned to American control in 1976, in the next-to-the-last transfer of “previously unlocated remains.”

Examination of the remains by the Pathology Department of the Walter Reed U.S. Army Medical Center, Washington, suggested—but could not conclusively prove due to the advanced state of decomposition of the remains—that Sergeant Petrofski had died of injuries sustained shortly before his death. Other tests indicated that that had occurred in 1969, five years after he was captured, and approximately two months before
OPERATION MONTE CRISTO
freed other prisoners from Dak Tae.

Colonel Philip Sheridan Parker IV was retired in 1981. He had been a Professor of Military Science at Norwich University at the time of his retirement, and on his retirement was named Petrofski Professor of Military History at that institution. The Petrofski Chair resulted from an anonymous grant in 1981 of sufficient funds to establish it in perpetuity.

Dr. Antoinette Parker is Martin Haley Professor of Pathology at the Harvard Medical School. She and her husband live on a farm almost exactly equidistant between Norwich, Vermont, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Colonel William B. Franklin was retired in 1982. He now owns and operates Inter-Island Airways in Jamaica.

Lieutenant General William R. Roberts, who had commanded the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in Vietnam, retired shortly after relinquishing command of the XVIII Airborne Corps. On his retirement, he was the last member of his USMA (’40) Class, Army or Air Force, on flying status. He then became Vice President of the Bell Helicopter company, but subsequently retired from that, too, and is now a consultant. When last heard from, he was on his way to Arabia, where he had been commissioned to evaluate rotary-wing aircraft for the Royal Saudi Arabian Government.

General E. Z. Black became Executive Vice President of the U.S. Steel Corporation. Following retirement from that position, he divides his time between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Dublin, New Hampshire.

Lieutenant General Sanford T. Felter retired in 1979. His last post was as Director, the Defense Intelligence Agency. He is now employed as a consultant to Arthur D. Little & Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Chief Warrant Officer Stefan Wojinski is proprietor of Wojinski Cadillac-Oldsmobile in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

After Peter-Paul von Greiffenberg Lowell renounced his American citizenship, in a decision that affirmed his right to German nationality, the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Germany granted permission for him to drop the surname “Lowell.” He remained estranged from his father and grandfather until 1979, when a reconciliation between the three was arranged by Mrs. Geoffrey Craig at Schloss Greiffenberg during the last illness of his grandfather. The eighth Graf von Greiffenberg is Managing Director,
De Hessisches Nachtrichten
, and sits on the Board of Directors of Craig, Powell, Kenyon and Dawes (Germany) G.m.b.H. The Graf and Grafin have three children, the youngest of whom is Craig Lowell, Baron von Kolbe, now three.

Colonel Craig W. Lowell was retired immediately upon returning from
OPERATION MONTE CRISTO
Colonel and Mrs. Lowell, the former Dorothy Persons Sims, maintain their legal residence at Broadlawns, Glen Cove, Long Island, but spend much of their time traveling. In 1982, while playing polo in Palm Springs, Lowell suffered a compound fracture of his right leg, and was hospitalized for six months. In 1983, after he had successfully crash-landed at LaGuardia Field, New York, a Lear jet aircraft whose landing gear refused to extend, Lowell was fined $35,000 for six violations of Federal Aviation Administration regulations, including operating an aircraft after his pilot’s license had been medically revoked. He was warned at the time that if he appeared in court again on similar charges he would be imprisoned. So far as is known, he has not flown—at least alone—since. In 1984, he won the International Live Pigeon Shoot in Madrid, Spain.

Colonel (Brigadier General Designate) Geoffrey Craig, who had commanded a regiment of parachutists in the Grenada rescue mission, was recently assigned as Chief, Special Operations Division, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Headquarters, Department of the Army.

W. E. B. Griffin
Fairhope, Alabama
June 15, 1985