1 Pittsburg Morning Sun Two of the three American soldiers who spent a month as prisoners in Yugoslavia returned home Friday to gifts and hugs. Ramirez was expected to return home on later Friday. Their Army commander, Maj. Gen. David L. Grange, said the soldiers were captured in Macedonia while scouting a route designated for use in the event of an emergency such as a Serb border incursion.
Yugoslav authorities insist that the men where captured over the border in Serbia.
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic released them last weekend after an appeal from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other American clergy. Grange said the soldiers had been punched, slapped and kicked repeatedly and forced to read anti-NATO materials under threat of death. They were awarded Purple Hearts and five other medals on Thursday. Gonzales was accompanied by his parents on a flight from Germany. Dressed in a blue and white jogging suit, his hair cropped in a crew cut, he said he was looking forward to a vacation with his family at an undisclosed location.