Hostage Crisis
I cannot imagine being held as a prisoner. The three Americans who tell their story in Out of Captivity lived for over five years as prisoners under the control of FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. They had been working as civilian contractors tracking down coca fields in Colombia when their plane crashed into the jungle. The crashed plane was surrounded by FARC soldiers, and their pilot and a Colombian official on board, were executed. These three men were rounded up and taken as hostages, moved from FARC camp to camp, marched for days at a time through jungles and up mountains and along rivers, and were sometimes chained and sometimes tethered together. Suffering bouts of illness and near starvation, they slept and ate and took care of personal business in the most horrible and demeaning of situations — and they survived. That they did survive they attribute to each other: being one man in a group of three kept them sane, alive, and supported. When one broke down, the others took up the slack; when one was sick, the others advocated for medical help; when disagreements broke out and annoyances flared, they weathered the blows and stayed tough together. “You don’t pick your family members,” Marc Gonsalves points out at the end of the book and “the same goes for your fellow hostages.” These three were lucky to have each other.
This was not a book I would have chosen in my usual course of book selections but it was recommended to me and I went with it, despite the 457 pages and my fear of propaganda. There was no propaganda, the pages flew by, and I really was enthralled by the story of these three guys. Bored out of their minds part of the time, terrified most of the time, and dreaming of home all of the time, this book is surprisingly well-written and moving. These men are not adventure-seeking cowboys, not gung-ho military guys or hard-line anything: they are thinking and feeling Americans, the best of our country, embodiments of our ideals of open-mindedness, fair dealing, hard work, faith, and doggone grit. “Do the hard right thing” was a mantra that got them through, together and intact, and without compromise. These men are not armed with a message, they’re not weighed down by a vendetta or hawking a cause. The only thing they ask of their readers is that the reader empathize with all those thousands (thousands!!! It boggles the mind and numbs the brain and chills the soul) still held in captivity in Colombia and elsewhere, victims of political maneuvering and competing doctrines and stupidity and violence.
Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Tom Howes (and all helped by writer Gary Brozek) tell their stories clearly and the story they have to tell is well worth reading. This book moved me, disgusted me, but also involved me thoroughly. I am now a part of their history, a reader and a witness to what they have been through. I hope that more hostages can be brought home, yellow ribbons and relieved family and caring arms all around.
