Mark and Betsy Green had been in their house just two weeks.

It was a nice, waterfront bungalow in Bowleys Quarters, a few minutes from the edge of the runway at Martin State Airport in eastern Baltimore County. The Greens had plans to renovate their home in the coming years. Little did they know that changes would be coming much sooner than they ever could have dreamed.

It was Sept. 14, 1997 -- a sunshine-filled Sunday -- when the Greens left their home for a day on the Eastern Shore.

By sunset, their $155,000 home at water's edge had been turned into a burned-out, charred hulk. The Greens' nice, waterfront bungalow that afternoon had become ground zero when a stealth fighter, performing at an air show, lost a wing and slammed into the kitchen. The ensuing fireball destroyed their house on Chester Road, along with most of the Greens' belongings.

The Greens had little inkling that almost everything they still owned was riding with them as they began their drive back home. Only then did they begin hearing on the radio of the crash in their neighborhood.

"I knew it was real close to our house," Mark recalled. "Then, as I was pumping gas near Easton, I got this feeling -- that we needed to get home right away to see what was happening."

When the Greens reached eastern Baltimore County at 5: 30 p.m., two hours after the crash, police stopped them at the Bowleys Quarters firehouse; only military officials and emergency vehicles were allowed on Chester Road.

Everyone else was barred, but it became clear from reports coming out of the site that their home was gone. They were lucky to have their lives, if little else.

It's not uncommon for homeowners to start anew after fire, flood or another natural disaster. But few can say they had to rebuild because of the crash of a $45 million F-117A Nighthawk.

And now, a little more than a year since the day their house was struck, the Greens have rebuilt with the help of a settlement from the Air Force, and they now live in a new two-story, three-bedroom contemporary home.

The Greens knew they wanted to rebuild on the site they had come to love. "It was on the water, in a good location, and there was a lot we could do with it," Mark Green said.

After the crash, military officials prevented the Greens from going on-site for three days before allowing them to view what was left of their 40-year-old home. It would be two more days before they would be allowed to venture inside.

From the outside, they could see right through the house. The roof and kitchen walls were gone, and other walls were burned or blackened. The floors of the two-bedroom, one-story house were waterlogged.

Also destroyed were a 30-foot storage trailer, containing many of their belongings, and two pickup trucks and a vintage car.

"It was just a complete loss. Everything was destroyed. What wasn't destroyed by the fire and intense heat after the crash was destroyed by the water they used to put it out," Betsy Green said.

The Greens salvaged a fireproof safe, two christening dresses worn by her daughters, several guns and a cedar chest containing some photographs.

"You don't fully comprehend until you actually see it that you lost everything," said Mark, offering pictures of the destruction, including one where a jet wing with the insignia "Screaming Demons" visible, rests atop a pickup truck in the Greens' driveway.

The Air Force, which quickly said it would make things right for the Greens, did just that, the couple said. The Greens declined to discuss terms of the settlement they reached with the Air Force in January, saying, "It's personal stuff, but both sides received a fair deal."

"Despite what people think, we still have a mortgage and we still have car loans," Mark said.

Air Force officials refused to comment specifically on the settlement. But since the crash, 22 claims from people affected by the crash have been settled, said Lt. Col. Dewey Ford, public affairs officer for the Air Force Air Combat Command, for which the jet was flying in the air show. With a few claims still outstanding, Ford said, the settlements total $375,895.

The Greens and other claimants, including some of the 10 families displaced for several days after the crash, sought funds under the Military Claims Act, a federal law allowing people to receive compensation from the military. But those losses must be proven, through receipts, photographs and other materials. No punitive damages are awarded.

"This was not a windfall for anybody," said David Bolgiano, a Baltimore lawyer and former judge advocate general hired by the Greens to negotiate a settlement. "The Greens could have claimed more stuff, they could have padded the settlement in places, but they chose to do the right thing because that's the type of people they are."

Once the claim was filed, military claims adjusters reviewed every item on the list, making sure no discrepancies or irregularities were found, Ford said.

Despite the painstakingly slow process, the Greens found it preferable to working with their insurance company, which told them a day after the incident that getting money could take a long time because of the unusual nature of the incident.

"When you have a fire in a house, you can say what happened and they handle it," Mark said. "When your house gets hit by a tornado, they know how to handle it. But this was something different, and it was clear that they were going to spend a lot of time battling with the military before we were going to see any money."

By early October, negotiations resolved one issue: The Air Force agreed to bring in a private contractor to raze and remove what was left of the house, as well as potentially contaminated soil.

"At first they didn't want to do that for us, but we told them they could have their contractor come in more easily than we could get someone, and finally they did it," Mark recalled.

By having the military complete the decontamination, Bolgiano said, the Greens avoid any liability should someone be harmed by the soils at the crash scene in the future.

By the end of October, the military had paid for the removal of 10 inches of soil, possibly contaminated by the jet fuel that spilled in the crash and fire.

Next, the Greens began contemplating a new house.

Given the chance to start over, the couple explored many construction options, including a log house like one they had seen at Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County, as well as going over plans from housing magazines.

"We were able to do it from scratch, so we could do what we wanted," Mark said.

To build the house that they always dreamed of, they decided to take out a new mortgage and combine it with the settlement they would get from the military.

"You don't get this opportunity that many times, so you have to take it when it comes along," Mark said.

The Greens hired A & R Graphics, a small architectural firm in Lutherville, to prepare architectural plans.

The Greens knew they wanted to build a two-story house, with two bedrooms for their daughters, 21 and 15, on the second floor and a master suite on the first floor. Betsy wanted to have the kitchen to the waterfront side of the house, and she wanted several windows that would look out on Frog Mortar Creek. By late October, the Greens had the plans for their house in hand.

Next they had to hire a builder.

After the crash, they became the target of mail and in-person solicitations from several builders. After careful screening, the Greens finally selected John Deigel & Sons to rebuild their home.

In November, the military's contractor completed the soil decontamination and backfilled the property, and construction began on the couple's house.

Though the Greens' claim was still in progress, the Air Force allowed the couple to take draws against the eventual settlement to pay the builder his expenses.

"Here clearly is something the military did not have to do," Bolgiano said. "They easily could have told the Greens to wait for the paperwork to be completed, but they wanted to help them recover quickly, so they worked it out."

As Christmas approached, the Greens, who were living with Mark's mother in Rosedale, went to the property for a small celebration. They bought a live tree and decorated it with lights out on the pier along Frog Mortar Creek on Christmas Eve.

As the new year began, the house was fully framed. Now their plans -- the vaulted ceiling over the living room and kitchen, the loft, the 25-by-25-foot garage with 10-foot-tall doors -- were taking shape.

The first month of the new year also brought a final settlement with the military, the Greens said.

During the next three months, while construction was being completed, the Greens shopped for a houseful of furniture. Hitting just about every furniture showroom in the Baltimore area, the Greens sought to furnish their contemporary house with modern-looking furniture.

"What we had was pretty much stuck in the '70s," Mark said with a laugh. "So it was about time for us to move into the '90s."

The living room and kitchen offer a hint of the new style. The living room, with its stone fireplace, features a light-colored sectional sofa and a large-screen TV, while the kitchen is a study in black. Though the kitchen table is glass, all of the appliances are black.

"I hate to shop. I have been in stores more in the last six or eight months than my entire life," Betsy Green said.

Seven months and 10 days after the crash, on April 24, the Greens moved home.

"The crash turned out to be a blessing in disguise," Mark said. "We bought that house so we could renovate it, and this whole situation allowed us to do it much more quickly."

But reminders of the crash still linger. Airplanes making their way and from Martin State Airport draw their eye each time they fly over.

"I guess it's always in the back of your mind," Betsy admits, after catching herself inspecting a plane's path.

They say they love how their house turned out, but they miss their personal belongings, things that cannot be replaced over time, regardless of how much they were paid in the settlement.

"When something like this happens, you lose a lot of things you never would have gotten rid of," Betsy said. "I would rather have the old stuff, the personal stuff you cannot value."

Added Mark: "Nothing new here is worth as much as what we had. Sure, it's beautiful to sit inside our new house with all our new stuff, but I was happy with what we had, the way we had it, and now all that's gone forever."

The Greens say they are not bitter. "It's just one of those things that happens; no one's to blame," Mark said.

In July, the couple invited Bolgiano and several Air Force lawyers with whom they dealt in the settlement for a cookout at their new house -- a sign, they say, that things were right again.

"The Air Force told us from the beginning that they were going to make things right, that they would help us with this, and they did," Mark said.

Pub Date: 9/20/98