Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

A Place to Crashxviwas gone and Sergeant Cruz stood in the opening, glancing anxiouslyaround.“Bring this to Keith.” I gestured toward the front of the aircraft,where I assumed Keith had gone. Cruz nodded and I was left alone inthe back of the plane to gather our other weapons, my survival vest,and my personal backpack with my expense report in it. I wanted to becertain that it got filed.I worked my way up the pitted hill toward the front of the aircraft.I was surprised to see a cow staring at me. I looked for the pistol bagso that I could arm myself. I didn’t see it, and hustled back down theslope to the aircraft, assuming that Cruz hadn’t understood me andleft it behind.Glancing into the cockpit from the outside, I saw Tom slumpedover in the copilot’s seat, his head twisted in such a way that I thoughthis neck was broken. He was pinned up against the Plexiglas, lookinglike a bloody tissue sample placed on a slide. Everything aroundhim in the copilot’s area was covered in blood. I could see that he hada huge gash above his eye and a f lap of skin, like a turkey’s wattle,dangling down. I started beating on the glass and calling his name,but I wasn’t getting anything back from him. I figured he had to bedead.Above my own shouting, I heard Sergeant Cruz’s voice and thesound of gunfire raining down from above. Then I figured out whatCruz was yelling; he was shouting, “FARC! FARC! FARC!”Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tommy J raise his head andthen slump back down. Keith ran around to Tommy J’s side to get himout, and ended up pulling out Tom Howes as well.With Tommy J and Tom pulled safely from the plane and bulletsf lying all around us, it didn’t take long for us to figure out that we’d justlanded in the middle of a cadre of FARC guerrillas. I couldn’t believeit. We’d survived the crash only to find ourselves in a situation that wasarguably worse.