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Fort Sam Houston is a U.S. Army post in San Antonio, Texas. Known colloquially as "Fort Sam," it is named for the U.S. Senator from Texas, U.S. Representative from Tennessee, Tennessee and Texas governor, and first president of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston.
Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) is a training concept originally developed by the United States during World War II. It is best known by its military acronym and prepares a range of Western forces to survive when evading or being captured. Initially focused on survival skills and evading capture, the curriculum was designed to equip military personnel, particularly pilots, with the necessary skills to survive in hostile environments. The program emphasised the importance of adhering to the military code of conduct and developing techniques for escape from captivity. Following the foundation laid by the British, the U.S. Air Force formally established its own SERE program at the end of World War II and the start of the Cold War. This program was extended to include the Navy and United States Marine Corps and was consolidated within the Air Force during the Korean War (1950–1953) with a greater focus on "resistance training."
Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) is the United States Army's premier medical institution. Located on Fort Sam Houston, BAMC, is a 425-bed Academic Medical Center, and is the Department of Defense's largest facility and only Level 1 Trauma Center. BAMC is also home to the Center for the Intrepid, an outpatient rehabilitation facility. The center is composed of ten separate organizations, including community medical clinics, centered around the Army's largest in-patient hospital. BAMC is staffed by more than 8,000 Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, Civilians, and Contractors providing care to wounded Service Members and the San Antonio Community at-large.
Lloyd Youngblood is an American neurosurgeon. He was the chief of the Department of Neurosurgery at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas until December 2002. He is currently the VP of the South Texas Organ Bank. Working extensively with professional wrestlers, Youngblood has performed neck surgery on several professional wrestlers, including Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Lita, Gregory Helms, Bob Holly, Scotty 2 Hotty, Test and Rhyno. He has also worked extensively with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Matt and Jeff Hardy.
United States Army South is an Army service component command of United States Southern Command whose area of responsibility includes 31 countries and 15 areas of special sovereignty in Central and South America and the Caribbean. It is headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
Brittney Yvette Griner is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is a three-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women's national basketball team and a six-time WNBA All-Star. Griner was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
Peter Zanca was an American physician who served as a medical doctor in the US Army for 25 years, achieving the rank of Colonel, and then served as Professor and founding Chairman of the Department of Radiology for the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio. Zanca married Helen F. Allen of Roanoke, Virginia in 1938. They had three sons, Joseph H., Peter A., and William S. Zanca. Mrs. Zanca died of leukemia in 1947. Zanca later married Margaret Quaid in 1949 and had two sons, John E. and David G. Zanca.
Michael "Mickey" Bergman is the CEO of Global Reach and the Vice President and Executive Director of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, where his graduate level courses focus on the art of emotional intelligence in international relations and negotiations. Previously, he served as Executive Director of the Global Alliances Program at the Aspen Institute and founded the Solel Strategic Group (SSG).
Majd Kamalmaz was a Syrian-American psychotherapist from Arlington, Virginia, who was detained in Syria in February 2017 and held until his death was announced on May 18, 2024.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert is an Australian-British academic in Middle Eastern political science. She was employed as a lecturer at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute and has carried out research into contemporary political developments in the Middle East. The subject of her PhD research was post-Arab Spring Bahrain.
Hostage diplomacy, also hostage-diplomacy, is the taking of hostages for diplomatic purposes. While common in the ancient world, it is a controversial practice in modern diplomacy. Modern countries regarded as having engaged in hostage diplomacy include China, Turkey, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
Roger Dean Carstens is an American diplomat and retired United States Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel. Carstens has served as the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs since 2020.
Kai Li is an American businessman who has been detained in China since 2016. The United States government considers Li to be wrongfully detained under the Levinson Act. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared Li's detention to be arbitrary.
On December 8, 2022, Russia and the United States conducted a 1-for-1 prisoner exchange, trading Brittney Griner, an American basketball player, for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer. Griner, a WNBA champion star and Team USA Olympic athlete, had been convicted of smuggling and possession of cannabis in Russia in August 2022 and sentenced to nine years in prison. Bout had been arrested in Thailand in 2008 and transferred to the custody of the United States, where he was convicted of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012. The exchange took place at Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, following months of negotiations.
Marc Hilliard Fogel is an American schoolteacher who was arrested in August 2021 by Russian authorities for trying to enter Russia with 0.6 ounces (17 g) of medical marijuana. In June 2022, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Mark Swidan is an American who has been detained since 2012 in Jiangmen, China, and given the death penalty for trafficking drugs. In 2019, Swidan was charged with drug trafficking in China and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by a court in Guangdong. On April 14, 2023, the Guangdong court upheld the decision to sentence Swidan to death.
Evan Gershkovich is an American journalist and reporter at The Wall Street Journal covering Russia.
In the Shadows: True Stories of High-Stakes Negotiations to Free Americans Captured Abroad is a non-fiction book by Mickey Bergman, co-authored with Ellis Henican, released on June 4, 2024. The book provides a detailed look into the secretive and high-stakes world of international hostage negotiations.
Jonathan "Jon" Franks is an American advocate and public relations crisis consultant known for his work in securing the release of individuals held hostage or detained abroad. Franks has successfully advocated for the release of numerous Americans detained in various countries, working through public and private channels. Notable cases include: Andrew Tahmooressi, Michael White, Trevor Reed, Taylor Dudley, James Frisvold, Ridge Alkonis, Savoi Wright, among others. Franks provides commentary to the media on cases of Americans held hostage, and hostage diplomacy.
On 1 August 2024, the United States and Russia conducted the most extensive prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War, involving the release of twenty-six people. The exchange was realized at Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Turkey.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Siemaszko, Corky (2024-08-02). "For Americans freed from Russia, the path to recovery starts in Texas". NBC News . Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- 1 2 3 Edwards, Jonathan (2024-08-16). "Former Russian hostages face a new ordeal: Living the rest of their lives". Washington Post . Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- 1 2 3 Slater, Joanna (2022-12-16). "Where Brittney Griner spent the week: A military program for ex-hostages". Washington Post . Retrieved 15 October 2024.