As flights into Angola were delayed due to the capture of Uíge, the three helped Bufkin publish his paper Mercenary Forces Group, until Acker began running out of his Marine Corps savings and returned home in January 1976.
They met up with Nick Hall and Colonel Peter McAleese before proceeding to São Salvador, when the group quickly began to uncover suspicious behavior from Bufkin, ranging from owing others than Acker hundreds of dollars, false promises about the number of mercenaries already in-country, and plans to flee back to the States.
Acker took a FN Browning 9mm and MG 42, giving Bufkin's Uzi to fellow American mercenary and ex-CIA Officer George Bacon.
[4] From February 13 to 14, Acker alongside Bacon were on patrol around the perimeter of São Salvador, with the intent to slow down any Cuban advance and destroy a bridge before pulling out.
While they encountered no Cuban forces on the 13th, on the 14th Acker and Bacon were in a Land Rover driven by Portuguese driver Fernando, along with Douglas 'Canada' Newby and three British mercenaries, when they came to the rear stake-bed truck of an enemy column that included BDRMs.
Acker decided to play dead on the side of the road, and heard a wounded Canada, who had been hit in both legs and lost his right thumb, demanding to be executed rather than treated.
[6] He was released in November 1982 after serving 7 years of his 16-year sentence as part of a prisoner exchange deal involving Soviet troops held in South Africa.