American Contractors held by the FARC Discuss their Time in Captivity

Marc Gonsalves, Tom Howes, and Keith Stansell, American contractors held captive by FARC"And when my memory came back, I was a prisoner of the FARC. I'd already been strip-searched and there were people -- FARC with AK-47 rifles on either side of me and I was looking up at the -- a minigun of a Colombian army helicopter. And that began the period of captivity," said Tom Howes, one of three American contractors that were held by the terrorist organization known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the military arm of the Colombia Communist Party established in the 1960s. On Feb. 13, 2003 Marc Gonsalves, Howes, and Keith Stansell, crashed in the mountainous jungle of Colombia. Dazed and shaken, they awoke battered and covered in blood with automatic rifles pointing at their faces. Gonsalves and Howes shared their personal story with bloggers and online journalists during a DoDLive Bloggers Roundtable, March 26.

Joining us on the call were Bryant Jordan, military.com; Beth Wilson, homefrontinfocus; David Axe, warisboring.com; and AirForceLive.