Branch/Rank: United States Army/Staff Sgt.
Unit: B Troop, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry of the 1st Infantry Division, stationed in Schweinfurt, Germany.
Date of Birth: 1973 - 24 yrs old
Home City of Record: Los Angeles, CA
Date of Loss: 31 March 1999
Country of Loss: Macedonia/Serbia Yugoslavia
Loss Coordinates: last reported on a civilian road in Kumanovo, about 10 miles (16 km) from Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, and less than three miles (5 km) from the Kosovo border.
Status: DETAINEE changed to POW 04/01/99
Category: 1
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Humvee/Ground
Missions: conducting a peacekeeping and observation mission near Macedonia's border with Kosovo
Other Personnel in Incident: Staff Sgt. Christopher J. Stone; Spec Steven Gonzales
Source: Compiled by the Last Firebase Veterans Archives Project from one or more of the following: raw data from US Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

SYNOPSIS: On Thursday, April 1, 1999, Yugoslav authorities paraded three grim-faced and bruised American soldiers on Serbian television. The soldiers had been captured the day before near the Macedonian border.

The men were identified as Specialist Steven Gonzales, Staff Sergeant Christopher Stone and Staff Sergeant Andrew Ramirez.

All three soldiers were assigned to B Troop, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry of the 1st Infantry Division, stationed in Schweinfurt, Germany. The soldiers disappeared after reporting they had been surrounded and had come under small arms fire. NATO forces and Macedonian police units immediately began searching for the missing three-man patrol.

When captured, the Americans were operating as part of a NATO force put in place "conducting a peacekeeping and observation mission" near Macedonia's border with Kosovo, which is a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic.

Comments made by the American captives while on television were censored by the Yugoslavian government. But a lip reader told London's Mirror that Spec. Gonzales had said "To everyone at home, I'm real fit, and I want to get out of this prison." S/Sgt. Stone, his face smeared with blood, said, I'm not making any comment at all because I don't feel safe. I feel a bit sick about it all." The third captive, S/Sgt. Ramirez said nothing.

Immediately after the three Americans were shown on TV, there was debate about their legal status. United States officials first carefully avoided calling the soldiers POWs. They claimed the prisoners had been illegally abducted and demanded their immediate release.

Yugoslav authorities insisted the three were not POWs. They claimed the Americans had been captured on the Yugoslavian side of the border. Lawyers in Yugoslavia speculated the men could be charged with "waging aggression," which carries a jail sentence of up to 15 years, or "espionage," which has a maximum penalty of 20 years.

Yugoslav officials said they intended to try the American soldiers as criminals.

The International Committee of the Red Cross quickly moved declaring that the captives did qualify as POWs under the Geneva Convention treaty.

"For us it is very clear. There is an international armed conflict between NATO and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and these three captured soldiers are ... prisoners of war," ICRC spokeswoman Doris Pfister said.

Yugoslavia later signaled a retraction when its foreign minister, Zivadin Jovanovic, referred to the American captives as prisoners of war, a term that carries with it protected status under the treaty. Washington also changed position and began referring to the men as POWs.

The 1949 Geneva Convention was one of a series of international humanitarian treaties dating back to 1864. Terms of the treaty apply in cases of "armed conflict" as well as when war has been declared. Those terms dictate that captured soldiers must at all times be humanely treated and protected from abuse and public humiliation. They cannot be put on trial for engaging in ordinary acts of warfare for which the capturing country's own soldiers would not be charged.

"They can be tried if they are accused of war crimes or if they are accused of any crime which is linked to domestic law," Pfister said. "But what is important is that the fact of being on a mission for the American army is not a reason to try them."

Pfister said there also has been debate about whether showing the men on Yugoslav television violated a section of the convention that protects them from "insults and public curiosity," but the legal interpretation of the article was not clear.

The most important thing, Pfister said, is to have access to the soldiers and to see that they are being well-treated. The ICRC has asked Belgrade for unsupervised visits with the soldiers, but has so far received no reply.

By April 6, Yugoslavia had reversed its position and assured the international press that the American POWs would not be tried and would be released at the end of hostilities.

That same day, the Yugoslav leadership declared a "unilateral ceasefire" in honor of "the greatest Orthodox holiday, Easter." The Yugoslavians pledged to work on a settlement to the crisis which would allow the ethnic Albanian refugees to return to Kosovo.

The Clinton White House rejected the ceasefire, saying it was not interested in "hollow gestures."

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said the Serb ceasefire idea was "not only completely unacceptable but absurd."

At the same time, Spyros Kyprianou, a Greek who is the parliament speaker on the Mediterranean island Cyprus, announced that he would travel to Yugoslovia to secure the release of the three American prisoners.

Kyprianou suggested that NATO should observe a ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter holiday, if Yugoslavia would agree to free the three American servicemen.

NATO refused the offer.

On April 9, Kyprianou announced that the three U.S. POWs would not be returned home early. His talks in Belgrade to secure their release had failed.

The Cypriot envoy complained that within hours of his arrival in Belgrade, NATO intensified the bombing all around the Yugoslavian capital.

"It was expected … that during my stay at least some respect should have been shown and some understanding until I had finished my consultations," he said.

The Clinton administration responded by saying Mr. Kyprianou's failure was not a surprise.

The Yugoslavians have now hardened their position saying that the POWs will not be released until the war is settled.

Yugoslavian TV footage of Andrew Ramirez, or "Little Andy," as he is known on Eastman Avenue in Los Angeles, sent a chill through the neighborhood where he grew up as an honor roll student who followed in his older brother's footsteps and joined the Army.

"When I heard on the news the last name Ramirez, then Army, I said to myself, `Oh God, it's him,'" said Robert Rose, 34, a former Marine who lives near the home where the Ramirez family has lived for 30 years. "Everyone's in shock; they can hardly even believe it yet."

Outside the Ramirez house, neighbors and strangers alike came by to set flowers on the sidewalk or stick flags atop the fence lining the front yard.

Ramirez joined the military in 1992, shortly after he graduated from Schurr High School. He had been stationed recently in Germany. "He liked being in the Army, just like his brother," said Benjamin Rios, a friend. "He was happy there; he was doing something with his life and serving his country at the same time."

Ramirez's brother, Steven, is a detective for the Los Angeles Police Department. He issued a statement thanking all who had shown concern for his family, which was in seclusion. His mother had left her job at a Kmart store in the neighborhood.

Maxine Harris, a family friend, said Ramirez's mother was "taking (her son's situation) hard." Harris and her daughter Monica, 17, stopped by to light two candles, adding them to a group of 25 outside the house.

When news broke in the United States that the American POWs would not be tried in a Yugoslav tribunal and would be returned safely when the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia ended, Ramirez's neighbor Benjamin Rios was elated.

"Hang in there and have faith, Andy," said Rios, 33, who lives just a few doors down from the Ramirez family home in Los Angeles, where yellow flowers and American flags hang from a fence. Banners tied to the fence reflect the feelings of students at North Ranchito Elementary School in nearby Pico Rivera, who advised Ramirez: "Don't give up hope. You're always on our minds."