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

4 OUT OF CAPTIVITYThe number of prominent military, political, and civilian captives beingheld by various groups, primarily the FARC, was troubling to say theleast. By 2003, the number of yearly kidnappings had declined fromthe more than 3,500 committed in 2000, but the number of hostagesstill in captivity was among the highest in the world.I’d weighed this risk before deciding to go to Bogotá, and despite thisthreat, I didn’t find the place unsafe once I was there. I never walkedaround with my head on a swivel, suspecting that around every cornerthere was someone lurking who wanted to do me harm. In fact,it didn’t take me long to appreciate the culture of the city and the universalfriendliness of the Colombian people. During those first fewmonths on the job, there was little doubt in my mind that I had madethe right choice for my life and my career. I’d always been told that lifewas all about the choices you make. While I don’t think that anyonewould ever choose to go through a plane crash and become the hostageof a Marxist revolutionary group, I believed then, and do so even morestrongly today, that things happen for a reason, that God has a plan forall of us.The plan that brought me to the jungles of Colombia on February 13,2003, began when I joined the air force right out of high school. Eightyears later, I left active duty and began working for a private defensecontractor doing counternarcotic intelligence analysis. I enjoyed thework, though sometimes sitting at a desk staring at a computer screenand editing hours of video surveillance footage down to a ten-minutepresentation got tedious. The rewards, financial and personal, offsetwhatever boredom I felt. I was doing what I considered to be importantwork, operating at a crucial rear-command position in America’swar on drugs. Being paid a more than decent wage and being ableto provide a comfortable life for Shane; my sons, Cody and Joey; mydaughter, Destiney, meant a lot to me. Living in and working in KeyWest, Florida, at the Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) East was betterthan slogging through winters back home in Connecticut.