- Narrator: In 1986, Wisconsin native Eugene Hasenfus made headlines.

The plane he was in was shot out of the sky over Nicaragua by the Sandinistas.

His capture and imprisonment blew the lid off the Iran-Contra affair.

The scandal threatened the presidency of Ronald Reagan and made Hasenfus a national figure.

This is his story.

[airplane engine roaring] - What you do is, the planes that fly right out of El Salvador, just follow the coast down, and when you come into Costa Rica, at certain NAVAID points there, we'd turn in and make our runs into different places.

It was October 5.

It was right around 12:40 in the afternoon.

We were just a matter of a minute or so or a couple minutes as aircraft speed, as the crow flies, away from our target.

And this kid put that SAM SADDLE and he had an optical sight on us, and he squeezed 'er off.

And you don't even know.

All of a sudden, it just hits ya.

[explosion] It just happened so fast.

And that plane, it just yawled to the right immediately and started spinning in.

I was just fortunate enough that I had a parachute on already, which I always did, but I had the back door removed.

Everything was in flames and she was just making a very terrible noise as she was just roaring right in.

The other guys didn't stand a chance.

Even if they woulda had parachutes on, they wouldn'ta got out.

[airplane engine whining] It didn't seem real.

You go into shock.

Anybody goes into shock.

And I was watching the aircraft.

I could see it, and it was just nothing but a ball of flame and black smoke coming out of it.

And it was just in a right-hand turn spin going in.

- Narrator: October 5, 1986.

[airplane crashing] A plane crashes in the Nicaraguan jungle.

Killed was a pilot, William Cooper, co-pilot Wallace Sawyer, and a Contra radio man.

Eugene Hasenfus survived.

- I went back, found my parachute.

I cut it all up.

You know, I made a hammock out of it and a tent over the top 'cause it was just raining out all the time.

And the rest of it, I just used to keep the dampness and the mosquitoes and the other bugs off of me.

[raindrops pattering] But basically, I knew where I was.

But I just happened to run headlong right into the Sandinistas that were there.

[airplane engine running] My name is Gene Hasenfus.

- Reporter: [speaking Spanish] - Translator: And where are you from?

- Marinette, Wisconsin.

- Reporter: Can you tell us how you came to be here?

- I was shot out of the sky.

- He crashed on Sunday at approximately noon.

So basically, I found out the same way everybody else did, from the press.

- News Anchor: A Wisconsin man has been the focus of international news this week.

45-year-old Eugene Hasenfus of Marinette was captured in Nicaragua after his cargo plane was shot down.

At a press conference Thursday, Hasenfus said his mission was directed by the CIA.

But U.S. officials say the flights were privately directed.

Mrs. Sally Hasenfus joined her husband in Nicaragua this week.

Hasenfus has been jailed and may stand trial.

- Now that you brought it up, there's a point I'd really like to clear up.

And this point is all these media shows, every time they go back, they show this, the ordeal where they're walking out of the jungle with my hands tied with these two kids.

It was all set up.

It was a total set-up.

It wasn't rehearsed or anything, but I knew when they took me back into the jungle farther, they kept me back there, they were already interrogating me on several things.

But when they said they were waiting for the right time, I heard these choppers coming in and out, and for a while there, I was wondering, "Well, are they even gonna take me outta here?"

But all of a sudden, when I walked around the corner, I saw what, they had just about every news individual that they could probably squeeze in there in that amount of time.

There had to be 50 or better of 'em.

- The next morning, I tried to call President Reagan.

I thought, "Well, it's the only place I'm gonna get answers.

"He's, you know, I should be able to trust him.

He's the President."

And I knew he knew.

He put me in touch with a man named Elliot Abrams.

He said, "I don't know who you are and I don't know what you're talking about."

And I got angry and before I hung up, he did admit that he knew what I was talking about.

And he kept warning me, you know, be careful of the press, and you know, be careful what you say, be careful what you do.

- News Anchor: Also this week, the trial of Marinette, Wisconsin native Eugene Hasenfus got underway in Nicaragua.

Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua October 5 while attempting to supply Contra forces with guns and ammunition.

He is being represented in part by former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell.

Bell has called the trial a public display and Hasenfus only a pawn.

- I just want a lot of people to know that a lot of us that were down there were doing the right thing.

- Reporter: Hasenfus showed no emotion as the verdict was read.

- The defendant, Eugene Hasenfus Haines, of legal age, married, air cargo specialist, resident of Marinette, state of Wisconsin, United States of America, is sentenced to the maximum term of 30 years imprisonment.

- A lot of people don't go along what we did, and that's their beliefs, and God bless 'em, you know.

That's what the U.S. is all about, to have beliefs and check and recheck and countercheck so things do run right.

But we were not, again, I wanna say, down there as hired mercenaries or anything like this.

It was all a very patriotic cause and I thought we did a very good job for what we had on hand.

- Reporter: Eight days before Christmas and Eugene Hasenfus is on his way home.

The former U.S. Marine from Marinette has been sitting in a Nicaraguan jail, convicted of illegal gun running to U.S.-backed Contra rebels.

Instrumental in winning his pardon today, Connecticut senator Christopher Dodd, who wants Hasenfus to appear before congressional committees investigating the Iranian arms-Contra aid scandal.

- I don't believe I'm a redneck and I don't believe I'm one of the mercenary type.

None of us did.

But it's just a dirty, rotten job somebody had to do, and we qualified to do it.

- Reporter: It was the moment his family, his friends, and hordes of reporters and photographers had been waiting for.

Eugene Hasenfus returning home to Wisconsin.

Returning from a Nicaraguan prison following an ill-fated gun running mission that few yet understand.

- Narrator: Eugene Hasenfus was born in Marinette, Wisconsin, January 22, 1941.

- Eugene: Well, it'll always be home.

My wife and I both love this part of the country, and we're gonna stay here all the time, we believe.

- Narrator: Hasenfus played high school football for the Marinette Marines.

He was kicked off the team his senior year when he missed practice.

He went duck hunting instead.

- Marinette's fine.

It's a good city and they've been very supportive.

A few that aren't, so what?

You know, they got their rights and I'll respect 'em for that.

But basically, as a whole, everybody gets along good.

It's that kind of a town where you don't really have to lock your doors or anything.

And Marinette's great; it really is.

- Narrator: After graduation from high school in 1960, Hasenfus joined the United States Marine Corps.

- I was in the Marines, as everyone knows.

I was infantry for quite a while, then went airborne.

And I was in air delivery for quite a while.

In air delivery, I was a very proficient individual.

I went through all the Army schools.

I took their Dodge award and I took their Most Outstanding Airborne Soldier award.

I took everything.

- Narrator: In 1966, Hasenfus joined Air America.

According to evidence submitted to Congress in 1975, Air America was a CIA-owned airline which fought secretly in Laos during the Vietnam War.

- Now, I used to work with Air America.

Starting back in 1966, right through 1973, actually '74.

But there are stories all around about Air America here and there.

I wanna make one thing clear, that the movie Air America out is very despicable.

It's not truth.

It isn't worth a nickel.

- Hey, Gene, we're not here right now.

- Yeah, I saw Nixon on TV.

- Yeah.

So if we're not actually here, then of course, this didn't happen.

- Well, maybe it didn't happen for you and maybe it didn't happen for Nixon, but I think it happened for Doug.

- Air America was stationed in Southeast Asia.

Their biggest station was probably in Vientiane, Laos.

It was incorporated with other companies.

Also, Southern Air Transport was a branch, but it was like a sister branch.

- Narrator: Hasenfus worked for Air America as air freight specialist.

He would air-drop supplies to soldiers in battle.

- Our jobs pertained mainly of all bringing of the cargo.

Putting it on the aircraft, securing it to its proper restraint or G4s, foreward aft, and sending it up for air delivery or point-to-point, wherever it may be.

Basically, loading the aircraft, taking care-- The whole back of the aircraft was yours.

But I loved Air America, and I loved anything that our country will do is right, no matter if it was CIA over there or whatever.

- Narrator: After six years with Air America, Hasenfus returned to Marinette and married Sally.

In the spring of 1986, Hasenfus was an unemployed construction worker with a wife and three children.

Then the phone rang.

[telephone ringing] - In, it was around May of 1986 when William called me the first time.

- We were all working in the yard because we had just had a whopping storm that tore up our frontage.

And the phone call came in.

- Eugene: William Cooper, who was a very dear friend of mine and was a captain with Air America for many years.

- Sally: I knew who William Cooper was.

I mean, Gene spoke of him with total honor and respect, and he was like Dad to him.

- And he mentioned that there might be a possibility of some employment in Central America.

- When Bill called and I told Gene it was Bill, and he ran inside so fast and he took that phone, and he was at attention the whole time he was talking to this man.

He had total trust and love for him.

- So he told us, or he told me at the time, and later on, there was other individuals that we talked about that we would be definitely resupplying the Contras, and that he said it wouldn't necessarily be entering Nicaragua all the time, but some of them would be in different countries there.

- It was in the spring of '86, and, you know, life has been real strange since.

- Narrator: At the time of this phone call, the Boland Amendment was in effect.

Passed by Congress in 1984, the Boland Amendment banned direct or indirect U.S. military aid to the Contra rebels.

- Well, everybody uses this term "running guns."

It's a very distasteful saying; it really is, Steve.

When you're running a government deal, whether in a paramilitary, you're doing the same thing the U.S. government would do, but being covert that it was, you're not...

The individual, I don't know how you define a gun runner.

But it's not running guns.

You're just doing military work, is all you're doing.

You're resupplying forces that are-- We believe in a democratic force, which the Contras were.

This here was supposed to be another sequel, if I may use that word, of exactly what Air America was doing over in Southeast Asia.

It'd just be a different geographical location and a time sequence.

But otherwise, it'd be exactly the same.

Working for the government.

- Narrator: The Contra resupply network, dubbed "The Enterprise," was organized by former Air Force general Richard Secord.

Secord used Southern Air Transport planes for the missions.

- Do you know a man named Richard Gad?

- Yes.

- Did Mr. Gad play a role in these arms sales to Calero?

- Yes, he did, for the airlift.

He arranged for the air transportation.

And his company was paid a fee for that.

And the company that he utilized was the Miami-based Southern Air Transport company.

- Southern Air Transport had dummy companies all around, which was hard to trace.

Like Secord himself said they were supposed to erase the fingerprints.

Which they did a pretty good job of.

- Narrator: One of the front companies of Southern Air Transport was Corporate Air Services.

This is the dummy company Hasenfus signed a contract with.

- We signed a secrecy agreement.

We also signed a contract stating that we were working for this Corporate Air Service as an independent contractor.

But we were also stated at the time, like from Cooper and that, that this was just a front.

It was nothing more than that.

We just had to do it as terms of the employment.

And when he said, "Exactly like Air America in Southeast Asia," it was strictly in...

He kept on just saying, "This whole thing "is just being run right outta the, you know, the back door of the White House."

- Colonel, you testified earlier about the Contra resupply effort and your role in it.

You said, and I quote you, "This was a covert operation run by the U.S.

government."

- There is no doubt that the President wanted the policy of support for the Nicaraguan resistance pursued, and I did so to the very best of my abilities.

- What happened here was, what they were actually trying to do, Southern Air Transport being in the picture was taken over.

Already, they had different dummy companies out there.

They were getting money, putting it into these, paying themselves, putting their own maintenance in.

But the bottom line, what they wanted was this contract.

They wanted the full contract.

In other words, this paramilitary outfit would be turned over, the CIA would run it.

But it'd be all Southern Air and these boys.

And they'd be wreaking in all the harvest from it.

- Narrator: By October 1986, the Boland Amendment was reversed.

Congress approved $100 million in military aid to the Contras.

Richard Secord wanted to sell the resupply network to the CIA.

- Yes; it was our desire, as I told the director of the CIA in '85, it was our desire to turn this operation, which by this time was functioning well, finally, at last.

To turn this organization, this operation over to the CIA when they were enabled to commence operations again, pursuant to the '86 legislation.

Ultimately, ultimately I was told that they did agree to take over this operation.

And tragically, it was just a few days before the C-123 was shot down that they did reach agreement.

If that shoot-down had not occurred, I think we would have had a smooth transition.

- They were making a big profit, from what I understand.

I don't have all the figures and I don't wanna elaborate on some of it because I got a foregoing lawsuit still pending on some of this.

- Reporter: Eugene Hasenfus, the Marinette man shot down last year over Nicaragua, filed suit this week in Los Angeles superior court.

The $35-million lawsuit names over 300 defendants, including retired Air Force general Richard Secord.

- Narrator: Hasenfus sued Richard Secord and Southern Air Transport for back pay, fraud, and misrepresentation.

He cited poor maintenance of the planes and the lack of proper navigation systems.

[airplane engine roaring] - Secord and his people in that Southern Air said they didn't have any money.

But he had to have so much money tied up and stuff.

They had enough money to buy North a whole security system and all that.

They come up and they just...

It's hard to believe some of the things they did, really.

- As far as being compensated financially, you know, we're looking for exactly that.

We're looking for exactly what they promised to give us to be paid, which was my earnings, Gene's earnings, the bills paid.

Now, beyond that...

I've found out things through this that are going on that are wrong.

For instance, people like Mr. Secord, some of these people may start out on the right foot, with the right beliefs.

Somewhere along the line here, money, profit took over.

Profit became more important than Gene's life, Mr. Sawyer's life, and Mr. Cooper's life.

- Narrator: In July 1990, a Miami federal court jury ruled that Richard Secord and Southern Air Transport employed Hasenfus, but they awarded no money.

Hasenfus blames the judge's instructions to the jury and has appealed the decision.

- It's hard; it's really hard.

We've gone through one trial, and I think we're looking forward to another trial.

Not literally, but...

I think it's something that has to be done.

We need to get through this, get it over with.

I feel very betrayed on it.

Many of us did.

Other ones probably look at it, "Ah, just another thing.

It happened that way and that's the way it is."

But they betrayed us in our trust, what we thought we were doing.

We thought it was a very patriotic thing, and being in our expertise lane in this field, and something had to be done to bridge this part until the CIA actually could come over on this.

'Cause the agency was involved in this all the way.

Everyone was, right straight down from the White House.

- Steven: How much do you think then-Vice President Bush and President Reagan knew at the time?

- This is my opinion.

Maybe a few other people.

But I'm quite sure they knew more than I did.

I'm saying, Mr. North, Poindexter, other individuals were set up to take the fall, and they knew it.

And they took it quite well.

My belief in the whole thing, I wish what woulda happened on October 6 or 7, when it really got blasted out, what was happening, that they woulda, there woulda been no deniability.

They shoulda just come out and said, "Yes, we were in it.

"This is the way governments have to work "in certain situations like this here, and we're down powered."

Who could say anything against 'em then?

There'd be a few people mad at 'em, definitely.

But all the other people who back and support 'em, they'd be proud of 'em, and we wouldn't have this thing right now.

It'd be all over with.

- I can't believe this is still going on.

I thought it would be over with.

I thought our lives would be back to normal, somewhat.

[birds calling] - I used to have a dock out there and stuff, but I haven't had time to rebound lately.

It was a big loss, you know, from 1986 when we lost a lot of stuff there.

And right now, we're getting caught up where we can start breathing again, you know?

Where the current isn't as swift.

- Narrator: Hasenfus works an occasional construction job in Marinette, but he is deeply in debt, and there has been stress in the family, according to Sally.

- We're in turmoil here.

We're all scared.

We don't have that laid-back way that we used to have.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Sally: My son's grades have gone from typical little boy average, A, B, C, D grades to incompletes.

He draws airplanes all day long on his paper.

He's in counseling.

I'm not the same person, you know.

I'm not this easy-going, carefree kid that I was before.

I'm uptight; I'm angry.

I'm bitter.

I think the house should be open.

- Narrator: The inside of Hasenfus's home was destroyed by a fire last April.

He is now remodeling.

Hasenfus has had a tough time paying off legal bills, four-year-old legal bills that are a constant reminder of Nicaragua.

- War isn't a very nice thing.

It isn't pretty at all.

But it's always gonna be there.

And somebody's gotta do it.

Not that it's me; I don't give a shit about war.

It's just, this last deal, it was a call to do it, and I went.

It was simple.

And I'm still proud of it; I am.

Oh, we're outta luck on that one.

There gotta be some pictures out here.

I know they're out here.

It's just a matter of digging around.

Hasenfus has extensive documentation of his exploits.

An old rucksack from Vietnam.

You can see the Vietnamese Airborne wings.

There's what's left of that picture, right there.

That's that same aircraft Colonel Dutton was on, William Cooper.

That's the same aircraft that was shot down.

- Narrator: In addition to this photo of the cargo plane, he has pictures of his days with Air America in Southeast Asia.

- Here goes another C-123K, taking off at a site up in Laos.

AFS, that stands for Air Freight Specialist.

As you can see, the outside's burnt up quite a bit.

- Narrator: These are the mementos of a man who has led an unusual and sometimes violent life.

- I haven't looked at these-- This is the first time I've looked at 'em since the fire.

Here's pictures on air drops in Laos.

I can just see, here's what's left of the villages after they got run over.

You can just see how they're all blown to shit, huh?

We're dropping supplies in after they were overrun and they regrouped.

Here's a crash-- Here's a C-130.

There's something that we used to use on special project.

This here is it crashed.

It's the only thing that's left of it.

Here's a way you could find out where you'd find the bodies.

There, that's all spun out?

That's his head.

Kevin Cochran.

Here's a foot, a foot and an arm.

But you'd run into black areas.

Like this here, and you just dig a little bit.

There's the navigator.

It's awful; it's a big, bad sight.

That's me bailing out.

CIA guy took that.

That's just me bailing out over another place.

This one here was the highest jump in Vietnam.

- Narrator: In addition to all the pictures Hasenfus has taken, his memorabilia includes the clothes he was wearing on October 5, 1986.

- Well, it's cleaned up.

You see holes all over it.

They ain't bullet holes.

They're knife holes.

Stuck a bunch of grass and twigs in there, trying to cover myself up.

Mud all over myself.

It worked good.

The bottom line is, we were a forgotten group.

As of October 5, that afternoon, once they found out, it was a forgotten group.

Everybody was just forgotten.

It was just like it wasn't there and the individuals working it, you weren't there.

The name Hasenfus is German for "rabbit's foot."

And Eugene Hasenfus of Marinette is indeed a lucky man.

- Eugene: They didn't want to know me; they wish I was dead.

They wish I had never crawled out of there or were captured or anything.

There's no doubt about that.

- Narrator: But he survived a Sandanista rocket.

His capture unraveled the Iran-Contra Affair and made Hasenfus a familiar name in American foreign policy.

- In the trial, we proved that there was agency involvement, which goes into CIA, which goes into Elliott Abrams and all these other individuals that are involved above.

Well, Colonel North, which puts it all into the government hands.

And I believe it went all the way up to the top and they all knew.

Understandably, we all knew there was risk.

There's always a risk.

We're not, there's no deniability that we knew there was a risk, a very high risk once you've penetrated Nicaraguan airspace.

But the point is, we knew this and we all accepted this, and they knew we were going in, and they said they would take care of responsibilities.

- Narrator: The man who was shot out of the sky over Nicaragua in Octobe 1986 waits for word of a new trial.

Eugene Hasenfus wants to close this chapter of his life with Richard Secord, Southern Air Transport, and the rest of the Iran-Contra players.

- Like my dad always told me when I was a kid, "Always tell the truth."

He says, "No matter how it is, face the music."

He says, "It's hard at first, but things, time will heal all wounds and things."

[slow electric guitar music]