Kidnapped in Colombia | No Man Left Behind
There was no place in the United States you couldn't go. It hadn't been touched in one way or another by the drug trade. It was a war, and we weren't really winning at the time. Cocaine and marijuana started coming out of Colombia, and they were bringing about hand by airplane. In my aviation skills were extremely important because, in the early 70s, that was the primary method of bringing narcotics into the U.S.
Cocaine trafficking was very profitable; they had unlimited resources on a daily basis. We were good parents, really. I don't think it had ever crossed my mind to be dangerous. I was young and invisible. I'd been on the job for about 13 years, and I was confident in my ability to do the job.
When I talked to the Bogotá FSA Senate, they had information to present that he is a fugitive from a cocaine arrest in the United States. Why be staying at hotels with the man? Probably 11 o'clock news, honey. We were both asleep when I heard somebody pounding on Charlie's door. Every time they knocked, it became more insistent or aggressive.
I felt my door; they said they're going to shoot it down, and that's how Colombians dealt with problems: you eliminate the problem. Life was very cheap. From the moment he entered the hotel room, you could tell that Rene Benitez was the guy who's gonna be calling the shots. Lincoln stood there with the pistol drawn. I knew we were in serious trouble; he had his finger on the trigger all this time, and the safety was off.
All you have to do is flinch a little bit. With that level of danger does change you. Here we are together, trying to work this out as partners and confronting death. With the adrenaline and everything, you get tunnel vision. I was trying to find a way out: how we were gonna escape. And I didn't want to escape and leave Kelly hanging.
You have a partner, and you take care of each other; have each other's back. But basically, what drives you in that situation is the desire to survive. It's amazing what you can do, what the body can do when you get into survival mode. What a miracle happens! You don't really look back and question why you did what you did.
When you confront those life-threatening situations and you survive, there are bonds that are created that are like no other bonds.