Eugene H. Hasenfus (born January 22, 1941)[1] is a former United States Marine who helped fly weapons shipments on behalf of the U.S. government to the right wing rebel Contras in Nicaragua.
[1] On October 5, 1986, Hasenfus was aboard a Fairchild C-123 cargo plane, N4410F, when it was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinista government with a Soviet SA-7 surface-to-air missile.
[1] The plane had been flying weapons to the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels,[2] including 50,000 rifle cartridges for the Soviet-made AK-47, 60 collapsible AK-47s, nearly as many RPG-7's, and 150 pairs of jungle boots.
[10] Hasenfus managed to dive out of the open cargo hatch of the plane after it was hit by the Nicaraguan missile; he was later captured while sleeping in a makeshift hammock made from his parachute.
[2] His statement also included his recruitment by a friend in the CIA, an operation based in Ilopango airbase in El Salvador, supported by U.S. army colonel James Steele.
[1] Hasenfus later repudiated his statement, saying that he was unaware if his fellow workers were employed by the CIA, and that he had only heard rumors to that effect.
[2] The U.S. press generally suspected that there was more to the story of Hasenfus than the Reagan administration had admitted; according to scholar Scott Armstrong, this had the effect of making them more skeptical of the U.S. government's initial denial of the weapons-for-hostages deal during the Iran-Contra affair.
After violating the terms of his probation by exposing himself in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Marinette in 2005, he was imprisoned for several months at the Green Bay Correctional Institution.