Surviving Hostage Situations

Mr frell you're one of the few people in the world to get a chance to see a replay of their rescue from a kidnapping on TV news look a hell of a lot better from here than it did while those people had me on the floor of that car I'll bet it does and as I mentioned briefly yesterday farell I want to integrate your experiences into the company hostage survival program not just what happened but your feelings at The crucial moments and how you were able to cope with it let's use the kidnap model you used in the training program it'll give us a frame of reference and keep me on track it helped me to understand many of the things that happened to me during my captivity when they grabbed me and we were riding in the car one of the things that I thought about was what you'd said a kidnapping isn't a casual decision they'll know a lot about you and your lifestyle and they'll know how to use it against you right we're sure they did surveillance some of the photos show how thoroughly they were were prepared the odds of success were in their favor obviously you were shocked yes but I kept thinking of what would be next I was sure they were terrorists and would take me somewhere where they would feel safe I was in real danger they were nervous uptight and might overreact to anything that happened I had no idea how long they'd hold me did you think about the likelihood of negotiation then I wondered what they wanted how they proposed to get it I knew my future depended on two things the negotiations and the relationship I could establish with them I had confidence in the rest of our people handling the negotiations so I knew I could put all my efforts into establishing some sort of a rapport with them now as we review the whole thing it reminds me how important knowing something about it was to me looking back I can see my experience as an incident an event that had a beginning and an ending that's good now I suggest we review it and detail I'll tell you right off I was caught short by your pre-event stuff I had no problem believing that somebody in this company could maybe would be picked up by some bunch of gorillas somewhere I did not think it would be me and I had no idea anybody was watching me yeah but I just didn't tell security everything I should have look I didn't have my personal stuff sorted out the way I should Vivian and I had talked about the possibility of this kind of thing well I came home from that briefing and I told her who to call if I turned up missing you know all that kind of thing but I just didn't get around to updating my will giving her an up-to-date power of attorney I just didn't get around to it and damn it that bed the hell out of me while they had me when I wasn't too worried about my own caucus to think about anything else well the whole purpose of this is to get others to do it I've done it now too but after the fact what I'd like you to start with is the actual capture well as you know and everyone else too I guess I didn't think to tell security about my habit of stopping off Saturday afternoon at Fisher's farm for fresh vegetables in the summertime I go through everything else I knew all this business about not traveling the same routes all the time switching automobiles varying the times of travel keeping down the number of people who knew my plans and schedule even checked out my golf playing routine made some adjustments in that but I didn't say anything about dropping by the farm I know apparently you don't do that all the time and you know the area well right I guess it was May or June that secur and I did our survey on my movements and I never go out there except in Midsummer to early fall and have been going there for the past four or five years it was perfect for their strategy we know now that they've been watching your Saturdays all summer but the route directly from the golf course home was too risky for them then you set a pattern of going to the farm 3 weeks is all it took the fourth Saturday they moved in still can't piece it all together accurately it happened too fast I was totally disoriented I was petrified felt panicky my mind was filled with images and feelings of what had happened to me that not clear visualizations but Shadow ones things tumbling together darknesses mixed with flashes of clear scenes I'll never know whether or not I cried out but I remembered thinking at least oh no oh no not this I know I had the thought after that but they wouldn't really kill me it's like a dream I was flat on the floor and couldn't even see daylight through that damn hood I remember the smell of that damn tarp and that big guy jamming his feet into my back and what felt like the muzzle of his machine gun and then they took off I I found that I could hear the total sounds of the tires and it dawned on me we were riding on black top they had me lying with my head toward the left side of the car and when we made that first turn after backing out of the farmyard I was thrown away from the near side and my knees hit the opposite one I picked up on this then F us turned to the left onto the service road then right onto the forlane highway toward the city that's sounded different and then they picked up speed I knew we were on the highway just as well as if I could have seen it I tried to keep track of lefts and rights after we got off the highway even how long we were on it my mind was running so fast that it blurred until we arrived at the first house it's strange how in such a desperate situation you can be thankful over receiving the lesser of two evils that first house which sounded empty was total hell the big guy kept pushing took off my shoes and stripped off my pants my hands were pinned behind me until the last minute when they cut off the cuffs and they started me up the ladder damn you move my protest were met with threats and a couple of Ls in the back with somebody's fists I made my way up the ladder reach down here and take this what felt to my hands like a thin comforter that was really foul smelling was thrown up after me I immediately started taking off my blindfold but by the time I'd done so the hatch to the room below was closed and I was alone in the darkness that was the last contact or sound from my kidnappers I went over things in my mind as I lay there in the dark I had little fits of Anger of frustration and pure fear I knew where I was at least roughly I wasn't more than 30 mil from my home just a few hours before I'd been in my own car would have been in my own home in a matter of minutes and then grabbed and was my home secure I wondered would they have gone after my family too no I decided I was the target I thought about the briefing we'd gone through at the office the things that had been said about case histories the statistics from around the world the odds were that my family was all right and that I would come out okay too but what were they thinking by now my wife would know something was wrong but what I told you we'd talked about this possibility some but neither of us had thought it would happen and always too damn busy I hadn't done much about the will and the other pre-event preparation I wondered if she'd remember to call security when I didn't show for dinner security please this is Vivian Harkins FAL Harkins wife my husband is over 4 hours late for dinner he played golf this afternoon at Mayfair Country Club yes like he always does yes but never this late and I'm getting very worried he asked me to call you if there was any problems I kept getting these things all tangled in my mind going from fantasy to what I thought was reality and probably not doing myself much good all this within those first few hours in the Attic that's right I kept telling myself that I had to concentrate on what was happening to me I figured that they probably didn't intend to kill me or they would have back at the farm and if they wanted to Ransom I was of no use to them dead their disguises reinforced my thinking on this point but what would they do with me how would I be treated I remembered the points you made in the briefing about coercive tactics and control techniques used against victims as I look back it's almost like they went to your breathing they didn't miss a trick the next contact after that was well past the peak of the next day's heat when they handed up supper a nearly cold baked potato some poorly cooked hamburger meat and rice an overly ripe tomato and a jar of juice please it's too hot up here won't you let me down just long enough to go to the bathroom no human being should be treated like this left up here in this this other once I thought I heard the woman's voice say tell him he's in his crapper otherwise nothing they didn't say anything directly to me it was as if I were a thing not a person I was really helpless dependent and alone despite that did you still think they were going to keep you alive that's what I wanted to think but you were concerned because they were treating you like a thing well I was in that attic I thought I'd be better off if they were seeing me instead of dealing with me as a thing later I was completely convinced of this and tried to build some kind of relationship with my guards and did adopt the strategy of trying to make the best of whatever happened at least to the extent of showing them that I could take it and I was a man a person with resourcefulness but truthfully at the time we were talking about now I was more concerned with fighting my immediate problems than fighting depression I held off urinating for a long time thinking they'd come back soon and let me go to the bathroom then I used a Place against a wall as far from the comforter as I could find still managed to get it a little wet before tilted that way or something and I had the problem of my underwear and shirt thin golf shirt I was wearing being soaking wet with sweat and that heat I mean soaking God it makes me thirsty just to think about it but really the thing that began to get to me was that I I couldn't get their attention at all I wanted to get out of the Heat and I wanted to say that to them and it was so damn frustrating that I couldn't I got angry I got scared how long could I last if they abandoned me I got angry again I tried to calm down and and I would for a bit and then I was at it again flailing about trying to get their attention I remember putting my face right up to the hatch to the room below low and pleading as cly as I knew how to be let out I complained of stifling air and heat being thirsty and having to go to the toilet I got no response I raised my voice and raised it more and still no response you got to let me out I beat on the door I beat louder until my hands hurt I pounded on it with my foot but with no success I worked at it with my fingers trying to get it open and cut them on nails in a sharp Splinter I got nowhere I made myself lie still trying to count seconds and minutes then I tried again man I was tired I finally decided I should try to sleep again dimly remembering the survival breathing at one point I wondered if it were morning and I lay still listening for sounds I heard an automobile pass by outside later a second one once I thought I heard some voices but then decided that I hadn't nothing and certainly none of the Morning Sounds we were told about birds early bustling around and so on somehow after that first night they had taken my watch you know or first morning I became terribly confused on time and actually overcompensated in my mind I decided it was Sunday when they got me down from the attic and when I was left alone and quiet for a while a bit later I imagined going to church even tried to count off the steps from the street in my head so on somewhere in all of this I overheard a loud argument about moving me one a woman's voice and at least two men the majority of it was that they should get me down put this they told me to put the hood on my head and then they guided me to the ladder come on down there a couple of people's hands on me I used my own hands and arms for part of it it's right there that's it and then I was down please please I I've got to go bathroom his pants give his pants damn I must have been some picture standing there in my dirty underwear with that black hood over my head than but I didn't think about it I I just asked to go to the bathroom I guess I'll tell you about this next part maybe you can help somebody else with it your foot it was the most degrading part of the incident somebody led me about a dozen steps I guess the other at least a couple of people it seemed like were tramping along too I bumped into them and a door frame on the way whoever was closest when we got there obviously misunderstood my problem I was guided to the bowl and my shorts were jerked down I shuffled around awkwardly then they were laughing I heard a man's voice say wait a minute let him alone if he pisses on himself and then they all laugh then that woman said the stupid ass will piss all over the place here sit down like a woman and do it I'm sure it was her that spun me around and sat me down still with that damn hood over my face I sat there on that pot trying to turn my head squarely towards those smirking faces and said a human being ought to be left alone to do this anyway there was more laughter they cut the Cuffs off there was the sound of a door closing during that time I took the hood off my head and while I had it off I I looked around to see if I dare try for a window I was going to ask you about your thoughts on escaping as I looked up at the window even though it was small and boarded I was really tempted but several factors worked against it all three of my captors were armed and gave the impression that they would not hesitate to use any form of violence and although I had been in good shape when I was grabbed the two or was it 3 days in that damn attic and the kind of mental shock they got me into all these factors seem to work against it I also remembered some of your comments in the training program about bucking the odds all in all I figured I had a better chance by playing their game even with the misery and humiliation as mundane as it sounds those few minutes in that toilet were a turning point for me it was cool I could see cracks of light through the window I had relieved myself I knew I was caught in the middle of a situation where I had no control my general manager role was useless even an impediment I was completely dependent on these people my family law enforcement the company might be doing everything possible to locate me and get me out safely but there was no way I could help except to stay alive I was determined to survive get some kind of order out of the chaos of these first few days set some goals for myself and learned more about these people who were holding me what' they do next they cuffed me again led me out of that dunp to the car and we were off to my second prison a definite Improvement in the basement prison of that second house I wasn't tied up at all there were four guards all wore Walt Disney character masks I called them by the names their masks suggested with an open smile at times I remember that thing we were told about avoiding treating terrorists women as women you said they would usually be trying to out Macho the men and I saw it happen many times when I finally got a chance to take a bath out of the broken down laundry sink there in the basement I had a woman guard in the room with me and I just did it I was so filthy and I just stripped off and washed as if I were completely alone I had a bucket in the basement as a toilet it was all I ever had to use there it became just a routine and the guards came to give me the token privacy of busying themselves with something else when I was defecating were you ever aware of the negotiations only vaguely I knew there was Trouble Over The Ransom demands particularly the food giveaways but they kept me in the dark on details except when they lost their tempers or were fighting among themselves I didn't discuss any of the issues with them to avoid being a party to a negotiation that was obviously going badly they asked me personal questions several times you know the validation procedures we able to work on your physical conditioning in the basement cell absolutely I think this was one of the most important aspects of my personal survival program I try to stay in good shape I had to adjust to lousy food and a very confined living space I even suffered a few attacks of diarrhea after you handed out the Canadian Air Force program at our survival briefing I worked it into my daily routine at home and continued it religiously during my captivity it really works well in confined spaces I also did isometrics I guess I had the smallest jogging course in history I couldn't measure time of course but I did the equivalent of about 5 miles a day running in place moving the length of the cell along the 8T Dimension how about mental conditioning that area was more difficult I told you about goal setting earlier I tried not to focus on possible release dates the negotiation problems or what my family was doing I spent a lot of time developing my my new daily routine I had a calendar on the wall and I ticked off the days with reasonable accuracy meal time even though the food was terrible was a very significant event and my captors were reasonably consistent because they ate around the same time I cleaned my room daily as best I could even the toilet routine was disciplined and scheduled into my day looking back now it's hard to believe that such trivia assumed such important in my new life I spent a lot of time working on business problems inventing new products developing their marketing plans imagining competitive reaction to my strategies boredom became a real problem and I was determined to fight it easier said than done by the way what about your relations with the terrorist actually I was on reasonably friendly terms with only one of them and even that relationship was tenuous there were times when I thought it was a little sympathetic with my plight that was usually when he was on guard alone and we talked about our most common interest chess he warmed to that but he was also proud of having a political science degree and sometimes he would get it into his mind to grill me on politics when he did I could feel the animosity build up he was the smallest of The Men Who guarded me probably the youngest and I decided the most idealistic when he got into politics he came on like a true fanatic it was obviously a dangerous area as far as his attitude toward me was concerned and I always tried to steer him out of it as quickly as I could the subject you're afraid to talk politics with me you're a capitalist and you know you're on the wrong side of the struggle politics are your specialty not mine it's not something we can discuss equally as we can chess I was lucky on that one he cooled off and we eventually got around to our common interest chess it was a lot safer than politics and capitalism I tried to avoid being a hero or a winner in these situations I knew damn well my company didn't give out purple hearts I asked him for a paper and pencil repeatedly finally he agreed and that's when I started my journal keeping it helped Hold Me Together you may be interested in it for the training yeah I was glad the police recovered it when they found the second Safe House toward the end I found myself developing some bonds with my captors not just Pinocchio as days turned into weeks I had the feeling we were all in the same boat I resented the freedom enjoyed by my family and friends where were the police with all their investigative skills and if they found us would they come in with guns blazing and kill us that's a normal reaction frell it's odd how your perception of the outside gets twisted it sure is and I didn't come completely out of it for some time after my unintended release that all started as another move that came as a shock to me and I wasn't prepared for it I had grown relatively comfortable in my cell and in my new life 5 weeks is a long time in a confined area and in my incredibly narrow life it must have come as a surprise for my guards too for a moment I thought it was all over it was such a change of pace I figured the negotiations had dried up and that they were going to eliminate me frankly I was terrified H they dumped me in the back again we went racing up they were talking and not paying much attention to me they were talking about avoiding the police they did just the opposite they ran right into them apparently a roadblock have been set up for a burglar murder suspect and these people ran into it the police had no idea they were dealing with your kidnappers I can tell you it happened very quickly right after we made the turn the driver slammed on his brakes and we skitted to a stop the woman shouted they should run for it and you know the rest for