The Return

Over the next six weeks I kept a close eye on Jeff. I also questioned him about what they were finding. He gave me almost no information and at one point said the trail had reached a dead end.

The following week, most of the base, including Jeff's unit, went on a two night training exercise. The morning after the second night, the following headline appeared in the morning paper, "Three Soldiers Injured in Freak Accident." I didn't pay any attention to it, but when Jeff came home that afternoon I asked if any of his friends were affected.

He told me that he didn't know anything but word had it that the injured soldiers were part of headquarters operation and were not involved in the exercise.

There was a follow-up story the next day, but I didn't read it. However, that afternoon Karen called and asked if I had kept up with the injured soldier story. Of course I told her I hadn't. She said, Roz, if you still have the paper, you might what happened very interesting."

I said that I would find the papers and read them. She said she was running some errands and would stop by and fill me in. I hadn't mentioned it before, but Karen and her husband live off-base. He is a civilian working in the base public affairs office. He is a former newspaper man.

I immediately got the papers and read the stories. The first story didn't have much to offer and I was wondering what Karen could find of interest. It basically said the three soldiers had been injured during the training exercise and had apparently gotten tangled up in a booby trap set up for the exercise.

The second story painted an entirely different picture. The three soldiers were, as Jeff had said, from the headquarters section and were not involved in the exercise. But reading on it disclosed seven or eight soldiers in camouflage and painted faces had apparently kidnapped the three and moved them to an isolated part of the camp, about a mile from their barracks. There, the kidnappers forced the three to sign confessions to recent rapes. Then the kidnappers caused serious injury to the three and left them. The three, keeping together, had been able to get to where they could summons help. The three are in the base hospital where they are expected to recover and will leave the service with disability discharges.

I did a quick calculation. There are only three of us who have been raped left on the base. The rest have moved on to other duty stations. There were seven or eight kidnappers. If Jeff and the other rape victim husbands were involved, they had found four or five more helpers. Fear began to settle in. If Jeff was involved, and I had absolutely nothing to indicate he wasn't, in fact knowing Jeff, if he weren't involved it would have been a case where he didn't know about it.

I didn't have time to ponder it further before the door bell rang and Karen let herself in. She was all smiles and said, "Oh Roz isn't it exciting?"

I could hardly believe her. I saw nothing exciting about it. What was going to happen to Jeff? What good would the confessions do if the were signed under duress? How do we know the injured were the ones? Besides, there were four of them, not three. I was just plain scared right now.

She took me by the arm and led me to the couch. She said, "Roz, just sit and listen. The newspaper only has a small part of the story and it is unlikely that the full story will ever be made public. What I'm going to tell you now is absolutely top secret, You can't tell anyone without endangering my husband's job and future."

* * * * * *

Here are the facts as I now understand them from her explanation. A large portion of the information came from the victims.

Seven or eight persons took the three men from their barracks about three in the morning. The victims were blindfolded and gagged and then marched to the edge of the camp, about a mile away. The three said they were accused of perpetrating rapes and told they would sign confessions before the next half hour was over. They all swore that they were not guilty and weren't going to sign anything.

They were given ten minutes to talk with each other and agree on what they wanted to do. At the end of ten minutes they all refused to sign. They were then told they had another thirty seconds before measures would be taken to assure they did sign. They assumed that some form of physical force would be used and were astounded when at the end of the thirty seconds they were not beaten up, as they had expected.

Instead they were led to a spot between two trees that were ten to twelve feet apart. Their belts were pulled off and their pants and drawers were dropped. Then a piano wire was looped around each man's cock and testicles. The ends of the wires were then attached to the wire of the man standing next. The remaining wire on the two at either end was attached to the trees. The wire attached to one of the trees was attached to a small ratchet device.

Next, the ratchet was operated until the wire on all three was creating pain as the wire stretched and the loop around each cock and testicles began to cut into the soft skin. The pain reached a point where they finally caved in and each signed the confession. At this time, one of the assailants withdrew a black magic marked and drew a circle around a scar that one of the men had on his lower abdomen.

The man who seemed to be in charge told them that they had accomplished what they wanted and were going to leave them. One of the three asked if they were going to be cut loose and was told that they weren't and that they would be wise to stand very still until help arrived. With that, each of the three was passed two or three feminine napkins and told that they might need them if they couldn't stand still.

Then the assailants turned to leave. As the last assailant passed by he gave one of the victims a little nudge. This caused all three men to lose their balance and tumble to the ground. The piano wire did its work and the three sopranos were found by the perimeter guard when the guard vehicle approached as it made its rounds a few minutes later. The three were holding feminine pads to their crotch area and bleeding somewhat profusely. They were rushed to the hospital where their condition was listed as serious but stable.

Karen finished by telling that the uniforms and gear presumed to have been used by the assailants was found near the other side of the camp about thirty minutes later. The base fire department had been called to a fire near the fence. Boots, clothing, and a spool of piano wire had been doused with gasoline and torched. If there had been anything identifiable, it had been scrambled as the fire was extinguished.

The MPs had absolutely no clues. They would be contacting the rape victims hoping to find some leads. They were puzzled as to why one of the men had a scar outlined by a felt tipped pen but they never asked any of the wives if they recognized it. Now I knew why Jeff had no confidence in the MPs and their investigative abilities.

* * * * * *

When Jeff came home, I decided not to ask about the incident. Instead I asked if they had ever found the names of the fellow owning the scar. He told me they had and that they had the names of the other three as well. He informed me that one of them had been killed in a motorcycle accident off-base several months ago.

Through discrete inquiries to Karen, I was able to determine that the big cock that I had enjoyed had remained intact and had ceased to function as the result of a motorcycle accident.

* * * * * * Today, the whole affair seems so long ago and far away. Jeff completed his college degree program, went to OCS and is now a captain. We have lived on five different bases since then and he is figuring five more years to retirement. We have two wonderful children almost ready for junior high school. I still give pause every time I hear of a rape. I know how devastating it can be. I can only express my gratitude for a loving husband who, though shocked, was able to hold us together during that tough time.

We keep in contact with Rabbi and Wynn Sternburg. He retired several years ago and heads a temple near Miami. We are both forever indebted to them for their support, advice, and assistance. They are our children's godparents.

I'll finish by noting that the MPs finally dropped the search for those responsible for the loss of manhood for the three soldiers. Maybe it is because there were no more rapes after the three met their fate. They did question Jeff and seemed satisfied that he had a solid alibi. They only came twice. One of their big frustrations was that the 'alleged' confessions, though inadmissible in court, had never turned up anywhere. Were there ever any confessions?

I have never asked Jeff anything about the plight of the three. I know in my own mind what happened. I know he was involved, and I have a pretty good idea who four of the others were. I will never ask him about the incident because I know it is one thing he will never tell me. He would lie about it rather than tell me and I love him too much to make him a liar.