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

Freedom 427flight with a prayer. A Colombian priest was on board and he led us allin a prayer of thanks. At the end, I did manage to say amen.After the prayer, General Montoya got them all singing again. Icouldn’t imagine an American general letting loose with that kind ofemotion, but I was so glad to see him respond that way. He should havebeen happy; they’d just delivered one of the biggest blows ever to theFARC. Their most valuable hostages were no longer in their grasp.After takeoff, Ingrid came into the forward cabin. She walked up toMarc and hugged him.“I’m so happy we are all free.” She paused for a bit. Then, a look ofregret passed across her face like a cloud shadow. She continued, “Ihope that we will be in touch again in the future.” They hugged againand she walked back to the rear cabin.Someone mentioned that we would be landing at a military base inTolemaida. The Colombians would be going their own way from thatpoint.“It’s going to be weird saying good-bye to them,” Marc said.“It’s also going to be good,” Keith responded, and Marc and I waitedfor him to explain.When he didn’t, Marc said, “Whatever happened happened. I canmove on from there. When I heard the guy shout, ‘Colombian Army!Colombian Army!,’ the last five years just seemed like they had lasteda few minutes. I don’t hold any resentments. I’m just happy to be free.No animosity. Just get home.”Keith said, “That’s what I meant. I can get over just about anything,but I don’t know about Ingrid. Forgive? Yes. Move on? Yes. Respect?No.”We asked if we could go back to say good-bye to the Colombians.When we landed, Keith immediately went to his buddy Juancho. Theybumped fists and Juancho said, “Hey, don’t forget to call. I’m goingto need that truck.” The two of them had talked about Keith shippinghis old Toyota pickup to him. All of the military ex-hostages were try-