Neil Ahrens, Navy

Young artist drops out of college and into the Navy – and into history

By Tamara Stevens
Special to Emmet County


Neil Ahrens

Neil Ahrens looks through old photos of his days in the Navy.

Not many people can say they have been face-to-face with an international hijacking terrorist. But Neil Ahrens can.

As a Boatswain’s Mate Third Class Petty Officer in the United States Navy, Ahrens was serving on the U.S.S. Butte, (AE-27), an ammunition supply ship, in 1987. After being “underway” for two weeks of operations in the Mediterranean, Ahrens and the other 200 crew members were looking forward to some rest and relaxation on dry land.

“We were four hours from liberty at one of our favorite ports, Palma de Majorca (in Spain),” Ahrens remembers. “The Captain came over the ship’s 1MC (microphone) and announced, ‘We’ve got a new assignment, liberty has been cancelled.’”

All they were told was that the ship would be picking up a group of technical reps and that they’d be heading East. The Captain promised to share more information when it was available.

“We made the turn and we were going faster than we’d ever gone,” Ahrens said. The ship was traveling at “full flank,” about 20 knots estimates Ahrens.  “The whole ship was rattling.”

Ahrens and the crew were trying to imagine what mission they were going to be involved with, what was happening in the world at that time. The political scene was tense in a few areas in the Middle East and Lebanon, he said. The Berlin Wall had just come down, so there were tensions with Russia. But there weren’t any obvious hot spots that he or the crew could name that would warrant this type of reaction.

“We did not know anything,” Ahrens said. “The Captain said, ‘I will tell you as much as I can, when I can. We’re all in this together.’”

Little did they know that within a span of 24 hours, the U.S.S. Butte would be transporting the most intensely sought hijacker, bomber, terrorist following his arrest onboard a sailboat yacht off the coast of Cyprus. Ahrens and the crew were now a part of a complicated plot organized by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and numerous international law enforcement agencies called “Operation Goldenrod.”

“What I was a part of matters today,” Ahrens, 51 years old, said from his Harbor Springs home. “It started what we’re (the U.S.) doing now, what we’re fighting for in Iraq and Afghanistan. It still matters and it’s still going on.”

Operation Goldenrod

Neil Ahrens2“In June 1985, a Lebanese terrorist and his four accomplices hijacked Royal Jordanian Flight 405 shortly before take-off in Beirut, Lebanon. Several American citizens were on board. The FBI opened a criminal investigation and worked with various other government agencies to form Operation Goldenrod, a task force charged with bringing the terrorist mastermind to justice,” according to a television program, “The FBI Files,” Season 6, Episode 18, “Operation Goldenrod” available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xIyBde3EbU&app=desktop

Basically, a condensed version of the events that led up to the terrorist’s capture began in the 1980s, when Lebanon was the site of intense fighting from a brutal, ongoing civil war. Christian and Muslim militias were fighting for control. In October 1983, a suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives outside a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. servicemen. It was the single deadliest attack on Americans overseas at the time. Thirty seconds later, a second blast destroyed a French Army barracks, killing 58 servicemen. The FBI investigated both bombings, suspecting that Hezbollah militants were behind them. Terrorism plagued the region. At that time, the FBI could only legally monitor terrorism overseas.

To combat terrorism worldwide, and to prevent its spread to the U.S., in 1984 Congress enacted the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, which would allow the FBI to apply kidnapping and air piracy laws to crimes committed against U.S. citizens while traveling anywhere in the world. This was meant to send the message that any terrorist who takes U.S. citizens hostage would become the subject of an FBI investigation.

In 1987 hijackers took control of Royal Jordanian Flight 402 in Beirut. The hijackers ordered the plane be flown to Tunis. It never landed in Tunis, but instead the pilots convinced the hijackers they needed to land in Palermo, Italy for fuel. Airport officials refused to allow the aircraft to land. The hijackers demanded that if 20,000 Palestinians weren’t expelled from Lebanon in a few hours that all the passengers on the plane would be killed. The plane eventually landed back in Beirut. After a 30-hour nightmare, suddenly, the ordeal ended when the hijackers let all the hostages go free before they blew up the empty plane on the ground. But during the confusion, the hijackers escaped capture by the authorities.

Three days later, four Hezbollah gunmen hijacked TWA Flight 847 in Athens, Greece, and flew to Beirut. The hijackers made demands and ordered the plane be flown back and forth from Beirut to Algiers. The hijackers executed in cold blood a U.S. Navy diver onboard the airliner and threw his body out of the plane onto the tarmac. This act galvanized the FBI and the U.S. government to rededicate themselves to finding the terrorists who performed these acts and prosecuting them no matter what it took.

The four gunmen let the women and children on board the TWA flight go at various stops. After they executed the Navy officer, they took 39 passengers hostage and hid them all over Beirut for 17 days before their release could be negotiated.

Finding the terrorists became a priority of the FBI. The main hijacker from the Jordanian Flight 402 was suspected of organizing the hijacking of the TWA Flight 847. The FBI discovered that he was a member of the Amal Militia, a ruthless militia that had struck terror throughout the Middle East. The CIA began investigating the hijackings. There was no organized Lebanese government to work with because of a civil war. Meanwhile, more terrorist attacks occurred, including the hijacking of the Achille Lauro Cruise Ship.  All totaled, there were 812 incidents of international terrorism in a two-year period, with 926 people killed, including 23 Americans.

After the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, the FBI could legally pursue terrorists overseas for the first time. Working with the CIA, NSA, the Department of Justice and State Department, the FBI organized a task force in January 1986 to show terrorists they were willing to prosecute them under the new law. The task force was called “Operations Sub Group,” or the OSG.

In January 1987, the OSG learned that the Drug Enforcement Agency had an informant working out of Cyprus. The informant revealed that he knew the lead hijacker behind both airline hijackings. The informant believed that he could get Fawaz Younis, the hijacker, to travel outside of Lebanon, where the hijacker lived, by enticing him to participate in a large drug deal.  Younis had moved from hijacking to selling drugs. The U.S. authorities could not safely enter Lebanon at that time.

The OSG wanted to bring the terrorist/hijacker Younis to the U.S. and put him on trial to send the message to terrorists worldwide that the U.S. had changed its operations and was now on the offensive. It took a long time to plan the arrest and capture of the terrorist, and involved getting the President’s approval. In September 1987, Operation Goldenrod was a “go.”

Neil Ahrens3‘You are all part of something important’

The FBI’s operation command center would be the U.S.S. Butte, a Navy ammunition supply ship, located 15 miles off the coast of Cyprus. The “technical reps” that boarded the ship were really an FBI hostage rescue crew. The arrest took place on a sailboat yacht that the informant, wearing a concealed wire, set up to be a drug deal. The CIA had agents listening in a hotel room in Cyprus.

The informant called the terrorist in Beirut to meet him in Cyprus where they would meet the drug dealer. The hijacker, Younis, fell for the plan. The informant got him to state on tape that he was the lead hijacker. They boarded a small power boat in the marina that took them to the sailboat sitting 12 miles off the coast, with a sniper hidden in the pilot house in case anything went wrong. Younis was arrested without incident. He did not resist.

Early one morning under the cover of darkness, a powerboat was launched from the U.S.S. Butte to pick up the terrorists and the arresting FBI agents on the sailboat. The pilot was a friend of Ahrens’.

At that point, Ahrens said the Captain announced to the crew, “We’re part of something important and you’re all going to be very proud of yourselves after this is done. We’re finally striking back at terrorism.”

Ahrens remembers the collective sense of celebration experienced by him and the crew.

“We were all pumped. We were going to catch the guy who killed our brother,” Ahrens said, in reference to the Navy diver from the hijacked TWA Flight.

When the launch returned to the Navy ship, the Captain had a huge American flag flying and patriotic music blasting from the microphone. All 200 members of the crew were on deck cheering and clapping. As they brought the handcuffed terrorist on board, he was visibly terrified.

Ahrens remembers that the “technical reps” that boarded the U.S.S. Butte before the arrest didn’t fool the crew.

“We had SEALS come on board before,” he said. “It was part of their training to spend time on a naval ship and do operations from it. These guys weren’t technical reps.”

The so-called technical reps had taken over a portion of the ship and cordoned it off to all the crew. In hindsight, Ahrens said they were preparing rooms for where the terrorist would stay during the three days that the FBI would debrief him. Once on the ship, Younis was held prisoner away from the crew.

Ahrens has copies of a U.S. News & World Report magazine from Sept. 12, 1988, featuring the arrest and transport of the terrorist. The magazine cover shows the terrorist in handcuffs on board the ship with the headline, “The Capture of a Terrorist.” Ahrens points to photographs in the article showing the tiny room where the FBI debriefed the terrorist – a room 4 feet by 6 feet.

“It’s not a room, it’s called ‘a space,’” he said. “My band used to practice in that room.”

Another photo from the magazine article shows the terrorist sitting in a chair on the 03 level wench deck eating from a cafeteria tray.

“I gave him those meals,” Ahrens said. Part of each new crewmember’s role on the ship was to perform 90 days in the kitchen. Ahrens didn’t cook the terrorists’ meals, but he delivered them.

“I saw him face-to-face,” Ahrens said. “I never heard him speak English.”

The meals were bland, rice and little meat, and no silverware, just plastic dishes.

“Four days after we got him we turned around and went just as fast to meet up with the Saratoga (air craft carrier),” Ahrens said.

The terrorist was transported by Sea King helicopter from the U.S.S. Butte to the Saratoga, where he was transferred to an S3 Vicking aircraft for a long trip to the U.S. During the flight to Washington, D.C., the Vicking had two in-air refuelings. It was the longest, continuous flight from the deck of an aircraft carrier that the military ever performed – 13 hours.

The plane landed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The terrorist was taken immediately to Washington for arraignment. In 1989 he was tried, convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiracy, air piracy and hostage taking.

Neil Ahrens4Making history

The saga was the first instance of U.S. law enforcement taking an individual into custody overseas, bringing them to the U.S. and prosecuting them in Federal Court for a crime which did not occur on U.S. territory, said the FBI former director in “The FBI Files” episode.

After the terrorist left the Ahrens’ ship, the crew was able to take the liberty they had postponed for the mission. “We had a great liberty, there was lots of celebration,” Ahrens said.

Ahrens and the crew received the usual sea service ribbon for deployment, but nothing for “Operation Goldenrod.”

“It didn’t get added to our service record,” Ahrens said. He has a copy of a letter addressed to the Captain Joseph Davis, USN, Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Butte, commending the Captain and the crew for their efforts in facilitating Younis’ removal to the U.S. to stand trial. It’s signed by William S. Sessions, Director of the FBI at that time.

He also has a copy of the ship’s “Plan of the Day,” (POD) a daily posting of official and unofficial matters. The POD is dated Nov. 4, 1987. Near the bottom is a heading “Operation Goldenrod.”

It states: “Successful completion last month of Operation Goldenrod demonstrated once again the professionalism, dedication and can-do spirit of the U.S. Naval and Air Forces. Please convey my personal appreciation to the crew of the U.S.S. Butte, the crew, and air wings of U.S.S. Saratoga and the strategic air command for the flawless execution of this important mission. Signed, General John R. Galvin.”

There was also an article in the International Herald Tribune, dated Saturday-Sunday, September 19-20, 1987, with the headline, “FBI Used Drug Lure to Trap Suspect In Hijacking.”

Life in the Navy

Life in the Navy, and onboard the Butte, before and after Operation Goldenrod, was mostly noisy, dirty, crowded and busy, Ahrens said. The Butte was 326 feet long. Its purpose was to replenish ammunition supplies on other ships in its group by transferring supplies with cables to ships side-by-side in the open ocean with huge waves rocking and rolling both ships.  They do this by shooting a cable above the water to the other ship and securing it with huge wenches, or King Posts.

As a Boatswain’s Mate Third Class Petty Officer, Ahrens was responsible for preventative maintenance on equipment. He was also a divisional supply officer, ordering parts for winches and keeping account of them. Ahrens volunteered for the position of divisional supply officer when the previous supply office was leaving.

“The way I saw it, it got me out of grunt work, and I wouldn’t be covered in grease all day,” Ahrens said laughing.

Most days onboard the Butte consisted of 18-22 hour shifts of being “on watch” at different stations. Ahrens would watch equipment and monitors for 30 to 40 minutes, then rotate to another station. Shortly after being assigned to the Butte, Ahrens was assigned to pilot the ship. His years of steering powerboats for recreation on Higgins Lake, Michigan, where his family had a cottage while he was growing up, came in handy.

“You learn from steering different boats that all boats have their own way of pulling to one side or the other,” Ahrens said. He also had learned the necessity to be constantly correcting at helm in order to stay on course. “It’s all about anticipating the adjustments and being able to correct before the ship begins to pull in the other direction.”

While Ahrens was piloting the Butte, his first time under way, the Captain looked over his shoulder to see how he was managing at the helm. The Captain asked Ahrens, “How long have you been on my ship?”

Ahrens replied, “Boot camp, Sir,” meaning fresh out of boot camp, or brand new to the task.

“Is this your first time on my helm?” asked the Captain of Ahrens, who was 22 years old at the time.

“Aye, sir,” Ahrens replied.

“You’re doing an excellent job,” said the Captain.

Ahrens admits it was challenging to be surrounded by a group of younger, less educated men in tight quarters.

“It was the most crass group of men you could imagine,” he said. “I had to adjust to it to get along. You didn’t want to stand out or you’d be a target.”

One aspect of being onboard an ammunitions supply ship was the possibility that their cargo was highly combustible.  “If it ever blew up….” Ahrens said. “We did a lot of fire training.”

The Navy drove home the importance of fire training by impressing upon the crew that if the ship were to blow up, the amount of ammunitions on board would blow a hole in the ocean, literally vaporizing the water for a three-mile radius, from the surface of the water to the ocean floor, and beyond.

Neil Ahrens5Joining the Navy, seeing the world

Ahrens had joined the Navy as a senior in college. Most of the other crewmembers were younger, many fresh out of high school. They were coming from little towns across the country to see the world. Ahrens was using his service to his country as a means to pay for finishing college with an art degree.

Born in Ohio, Ahrens spent most of his young life in Michigan, though his family moved around the Midwest. His father worked for Kmart in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. After graduating from high school in Roscommon in 1982, Ahrens studied studio art at Michigan State University.

Working to pay for his college tuition (he was putting himself through college with no financial help) and attending classes full time, Ahrens felt burned out. He took a break during his senior year.

“I was engaged to be married and living with my fiancé and her parents, trying to figure out how to finish school and afford getting married,” Ahrens said.

A friend of his was in the Coast Guard Reserves and encouraged Ahrens to join, too. The GI Bill would fund his college education after he served one weekend a month and two weeks a year. Ahrens discovered that the Coast Guard wouldn’t give him any rank for his college education to date, so he went across the hall and inquired what the Navy would offer him. Before he knew it, he had committed to a two-year contract: 24 months of active duty and six years of reserve training (two weeks a year and one weekend a month). He joined the Navy in October 1986.

The Navy took $100 each month out of his pay and when he was honorably discharged he had $19,800 for college, he said.

“I was getting married and felt it was time to man-up, get back on track,” Ahrens said. “This would allow me to finish college. I had a plan.”

The Navy sent him for three months of training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Waukegan, Illinois, north of Chicago. From there he was sent to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, where he was assigned to the U.S.S. Butte, named after Butte, Montana.  The ship headed to the Mediterranean for a seven-month cruise, including Operation Goldenrod. The rest of the time the ship was on short operations, usually out to sea for two weeks at a stretch.

Ahrens was able to travel to ports in Spain, France, Italy, Corsica, and throughout the Mediterranean. By working in the Ward Room as a cook, Ahrens received better liberty than most of the other crewmembers. Every other day he could leave the ship and wander the coastal towns and cities seeking out museums, art galleries and architecture, while eating local cuisine and talking to people.

It was difficult to get alone time onboard a ship with about 200 men, Ahrens said. As an artist, when he wasn’t on duty, Ahrens liked to draw. But he found that it drew a crowd. So he turned to writing poetry.

“If you were writing, nobody cared,” he said. “It’s not interesting to watch someone write.”

After Operation Goldenrod, the Butte returned from the Mediterranean to perform operations in the Atlantic. Ahrens made rank to Petty Officer from seaman. He was honorably discharged a year after Operation Goldenrod, in October 1988.

Neil Ahrens6After the Navy

While in the service, Ahrens got married. By the time he left the service, he was divorced. Once out of the Navy, Ahrens moved to Traverse City and worked as a bartender, picked up security jobs, and basically “marked time” until he returned to school in 1992. After two years at Michigan State University, he graduated with honors and a Bachelor’s degree in fine arts (painting).

Over the next few years he attended Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills. During the two summers he taught at Blue Lake Arts Camp; and was the director of Art Colony.  He was a high school painting instructor at Interlochen in Traverse City. He graduated in 1998 with a Masters degree of Fine Arts in Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

After teaching at Interlochen, Ahrens spent two years as a teacher and counselor at the Beaver Island Lighthouse School. When school was on breaks, he traveled to the “mainland,” and on one of his trips he visited his childhood friend who was working as a reporter at the Petoskey News-Review. They went on a tour of the Crooked Tree Arts Center in Petoskey where Ahrens met his future wife, Liz, who is the President of CTAC.

Today the couple lives near Harbor Springs in an older home they’ve been renovating over the last seven years. Ahrens has turned one of the structures on the property into an art studio. They’ve been married 13 years.

The U.S.S. Butte, the ship on which Ahrens served, was taken out of service in 2004. On July 3, 2006, the ship was used as the target during a training exercise and sunk in an undisclosed location.  Sinking the ship is a way to prevent foreign enemies from copying the ship’s double hull and other features, Ahrens said.

Ahrens gets philosophical about his service to his country. At the time he enlisted, he was simply doing what he needed to do to complete his plan to go to college, he said. He’s glad he did it, he’s proud of what he accomplished and what the crew of the U.S.S. Butte did toward the war on terrorism.

On Veteran’s Day he wears his leather jacket with its Navy patches and pins, and gets a nice breakfast at the community college in honor of veterans. He’s in touch with several of his crewmembers from the ship, and there’s a Facebook page dedicated to the U.S.S. Butte. Every once in awhile he’ll post a photo of himself and his shipmates from 28-plus years ago on Facebook. But generally, he’s quite modest about his experience which is different from many. During WWII, men from all walks of life joined the military, from artists to physicians to mechanics. But during the more current timeframe he served, such a variety of occupations wasn’t typical.

“People don’t expect an artist to be a veteran,” Ahrens said.

Terrorist Capture Facts:

It’s the story of one of the FBI’s first cases on the war on terrorism, a war that started long before Sept. 11, 2001, according to “The FBI Files,” Season 6, Episode 18 “Operation Goldenrod, available on YouTube.

Read more about it in “The United States and Iran: Part VII: The CIA’s Solution – Goldenrod”www.dcbureau.org/20090812653/national-security-news-service/the-united-states-and-iran-part-vii-the-cias-solution-goldenrod.html

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