Teamwork leads to capture of criminals

  • Published
  • By Deborah Silliman Wolfe
  • Thunderbolt staff writer
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. - --  Most Airmen do their best to live by the Air Force Core Values, and would like to think if tested, they would do the right thing in a stressful situation. Tech. Sgt. Christopher McGhee and Staff Sgt. Lisandro Delgado, 56th Maintenance Operation Squadron maintenance instructors, had the chance to prove that they would do the right thing on Nov. 12 when returning to base after lunch.

They saw two men dash west across Litchfield Road and jump over the fence onto Luke Air Force Base property.

"We looked at each other and said 'We have to do something,'" said Sergeant Delgado. "When we went through the gate, we reported the incident to the gate guard, but thought that we needed to go take a look and see if we could find the guys and challenge them."

Little did they know that the men they were about to track down had just robbed the Circle-K at the corner of Litchfield Road and Glendale Avenue, and were the subjects of a Glendale police manhunt.

The sergeants drove to the area where they thought the men would be, based on where they had seen them jump the fence.

"We were traveling on Shooting Star Road, and when we looked across the rock parking lot across from the gym, we saw the two guys heading westbound behind the Desert Star Club," Sergeant McGhee said. "We circled around, and Sergeant Delgado pulled forward to make sure he was in front of them, blocking their path of escape."

Sergeant McGhee immediately got out of the car and instructed the two men to halt and present military identification. The men fumbled around making excuses that they didn't know they were on a military base. When they couldn't show identification, Sergeant McGhee called 56th Security Forces Squadron and explained the situation.

"The suspects looked nervous," Sergeant Delgado said. "But at that time, they were cool with us. I was expecting something to go down; it was one of those situations. But once we called security forces I figured the suspects weren't going to do anything else."

Within a minute of calling security forces, William Cramer, Defense Department civilian police officer, former Marine Corps infantryman and scout sniper with the Army Reserves, and Senior Airman James Worley, 56th SFS apprentice, arrived on scene. As soon as one of the suspects saw Officer Cramer's badge, he took off running. Sergeants Delgado and McGhee stayed with the stationary man as Officer Cramer and Airman Worley pursued the runner. As Sergeant Delgado and Sergeant McGhee were keeping the man in their custody calm and telling him to stay put, Office Cramer and Airman Worley cornered the other suspect, who looked like he was ready to fight his way out of the situation.

"He was cornered in an alley behind the Desert Star Club when he turned around and put his arms up like he wanted to fight," said Officer Cramer, who had been informed by security control that the men were suspects in a robbery. "I felt that since he was a possible armed robbery suspect, and that he had already run from me, things were going to get ugly. I drew my weapon and used verbal control. He realized I meant business and gave up."

DOD police officer Toby Boland and Tech. Sgt. Richard Madge, 56th SFS supervisor and individual mobilization augmentee, arrived and took the other man, who had been apprehended by Airman Worley, into custody. Once the scene was secure, both intruders were turned over to civilian police officers who had arrived on-scene.

Master Sgt. Gerald Nunes, 56th SFS day shift flight chief, was working the day of the incident.

"Everything that you could have hoped for to go right, went right," said Sergeant Nunes. "It was really cool it wasn't just active-duty security forces NCOs and Airmen only doing what they were trained to do. People with different backgrounds including civilians, military, cops and non-cops [joined in]. It was great.

"What really gets to me is that those 56th MOS guys really stepped up and did what they were supposed to do instead of waiting for another agency to show up. They knew what to do and they acted on it. There is a good chance the bad guys would have gotten away had those two not done what they did. In my opinion, they saved the day."

Sergeant Nunes also said the actions of Sergeant Delgado and Sergeant McGhee are a perfect example of Integrated Base Defense policy that 56th SFS has been preaching for a long time.

"IBD is a principle that everybody, not just security forces, defends the base," Sergeant Nunes said. "Everybody has a stake in keeping the Air Force safe. And that is exactly what they did. They saw the event happen, called us and stopped those guys. Most people call us and go on their way. If Sergeant Delgado and Sergeant McGhee had done that, it's possible the criminals would have gotten away."

Sergeant Delgado and Sergeant McGhee don't consider themselves heroes, though some of the guys in their shop insist that they are going to make a poster and paste their heads on the bodies of the officers from the old television show C.H.I.P.S.

"We didn't do anything different than what SFS members do every day," Sergeant McGhee said. "I looked at the blotter today and saw many unauthorized entries. And it is literally the same thing we did, but our guys turned out to be criminals. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time."