Randy Losey - ARIA Held Hostage

In the mean time, communication with the US embassy was made with a goal to get all of us out of the country unharmed. Any time that we traveled to a foreign country it was mandated that we donned civilian clothes before we left the aircraft. The ARIA aircraft did not display “United States Air Force” on its exterior. It instead displayed “United States of America”. This distinction was shared with only a few military aircraft, Air Force One and a few others. We also had the distinction of having no way to protect the aircraft and ourselves even if we could make it back to the airport.

It was mid afternoon before we could attempt to return to the airport. The crews loaded up into a bus and then we proceeded to the airport following a vehicle from the American embassy. When we arrived at the airport the Surinamese army welcomed us. The aircraft commander was forced to the ground and then a gun was placed to the back of his head. The funny thing was I wasn’t worried about him at all, I knew if they shot him that I was dead. It didn’t seem real, time stood still. After what seemed to be an hour the aircraft commander was allowed to get up and tensions seemed to subside. We were then allowed to make our way to the aircraft. To this day I don’t remember making the walk from the bus to the aircraft. The aircraft was located on the tarmac a substantial distance from the gate. Somehow being back at the aircraft provided a feeling of security, a security that was short lived.

It wasn’t but a few moments after arriving at the aircraft that a military truck pulled up. The heavily armed soldiers pointed their guns at us and flagged us to get into the truck. At this point my mind was racing with uncontrolled thoughts of how I was going to get to the tree line without being killed. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do after I reached the tree line when reality struck. It must have been our arrogance of who we were, men of the United States Air Force from the United States, which drove all of us to refuse their demand. I sincerely think that they were surprised and stunned at our response. In unison we told them “No”. They looked at us, then the aircraft. I believe there was only one reason that they didn’t kill us or force us to get into the truck. It was those four words painted on the side of the aircraft, “United States of America”.

All of the three Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft were eventually cleared to take off and we returned to the states via Patrick Air Force Base Florida, our mission scrapped and 63 very anxious crewmembers. The first thing I did after arriving back in the states was to call my parents to keep them from worrying. They weren’t worried, they never heard the news of the coup in Surinam and that USAF personnel were caught up in the middle of it. In fact only a small hand full of people heard the news. This was the first time in my life I realized that there are events that happen that the public are not made aware of. We made our way back to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the days following the coup. I cannot recall a single conversation taking place about the events of Surinam after we arrived back home.

We were lucky, oh so very lucky. We survived a situation that could have proved deadly to all of us. We later returned to Ascension Island that year, and in the months that followed, performed our missions as though the events of Surinam never happened.

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