Army Pvt. Steve Spofford heard the news at a 6 a.m. roll call on the U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"Foraker!" the platoon sergeant called out.
Silence.
"Foraker!"
Standing in formation, Spofford felt his mind racing. It was not at all like Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Foraker to be missing. Where could he be?
No one disappears from Guantanamo, Spofford thought, least of all the soldiers in charge of guarding the captives taken during the war on terrorism. But after a search of the base and the bay that was launched that morning of Sept. 25, 2002, it soon become apparent that Foraker had vanished.
Ten years later, Foraker is still missing, and no one can explain his disappearance. The Army stopped looking for him long ago, and his friends and family hope that one day he will walk back into their lives. As they watch other U.S. troops return home, they are reminded that no one was to be left behind.
Yet Foraker is an unaccounted casualty of the war, neither a victim nor a hero — someone who one night simply slipped away.
After the roll call, Spofford and others scrambled around the compound, checking the tents and the mess halls, combing through the bowling alley, the Tiki Bar and the Windjammer Club. Dogs and search patrols covered the gym, the hospital and the Navy fleet, but no cars or boats were missing.
A tropical storm was brewing offshore, and hurricane alerts were posted. Helicopters, boats and scuba divers canvassed the water as the day turned to night. Blowing wind and drenching rain would eventually halt the efforts.
Pieces of a Haitian raft were found on the beach, caught in the fence line between Cuba and the base. Parts of a body washed up, but were identified as someone else's.
In a crevice in the high bluffs near the prison, the searchers found Foraker's T-shirt and shorts, neatly folded, along with a wallet, $40 and an Army ID. His boots and socks were gone.
In the days that followed, speculation grew.
Spofford wondered if Foraker had slipped from the cliffs and fallen into the sea. Perhaps he had jumped, committing suicide. Maybe he had noticed the cruise ship in the distance that had sent out a distress signal for medical help. Maybe he dove in to help.
But little made sense.
Foraker hated heights. He could barely swim. And in seven weeks, he was to go home to rural Ohio, to his wife and two young daughters.
With no answers, grief and bewilderment descended on the place they called Gitmo, and for the next several days, Spofford and several others continued to scour the bluffs before and after their shifts.
"He was my friend; he was my sergeant," Spofford said. "But the only one who can truly answer what happened out there is him."
No known difficulties
Foraker was by most accounts a well-adjusted 31-year-old career soldier. He first saw war in 1991 in the Persian Gulf. Afterward he joined the Army reserves, and was called back up after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Army sent him from Ft. Dix, N.J., to Guantanamo shortly after the prison opened in January 2002.
Missing at Guantanamo Bay
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Missing at Guantanamo Bay
