By John Rogers
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
SARASOTA, FL (WFLA) - For 93 days, Jessica Buchanan endured a living nightmare.
"It will be probably the hardest thing I'll ever have to endure in my lifetime,” she recalled.
In October 2011, she and an associate were working in Somalia on a humanitarian aid mission when they were kidnapped from their car at gunpoint.
“We were in a convoy of vehicles on our way back to the guest house and we were apprehended by a group of armed men who took over our vehicle and then drove us out to the desert for hours and held us hostage,” she said.
They were forced to live in the wilderness for more than three months while they were terrorized. Sometimes, for weeks at a time, she didn't have any interaction with anyone.
“Sitting for weeks on end without really opening your mouth can drive somebody crazy,” Buchanan stated.
She was also deprived of food and soon became very ill.
“Our spirits are indomitable. Just when you think you have nothing left, there's always just a little bit more, a deeper resource that you can reach into.”
"A lot of times people ask me how did you survive? You don't have any other choice, you just do,” said Buchanan. "I think I was beginning to lose part of the hope that I was going to get out anytime soon, around day 92."
But on day 93, a US Navy Seal team came to the scene.
"It was like a movie, it was just surreal,” said Buchanan.
The Navy Seals killed the pirates in a gun battle.
“Suddenly somebody started shaking me and I felt hands on me and I started fighting back. Then I heard an American voice say my name, a young guy and he said, “Jessica, it's ok, we're the American military and we're here to take you home.”
She counts herself as one of the lucky ones.
"People do this all over the world every single day,” she stated.
Last week, American hostage James Foley was beheaded for the entire world to see, and his fellow hostage, former UCF student Steven Sotloff, is still being held by ISIS militants.
"It's really heartbreaking,' she said.
She can somehow relate to how Sotloff is feeling.
She says, "I think everybody feels a level of fear, and a level of denial and then acceptance that this is the situation that you're in."
But she is hoping for the best because she is living proof that there is hope.
"For me, I'm so incredibly fortunate and I am reminded of that every day,” said Buchanan.
She was in Sarasota to raise money for the Brian Bill foundation.
It's a non-profit that supports the loved ones of fallen Navy seal members.
After this ordeal, she and her husband left Africa and moved to the United States.
She later recounted her experience in the New York Times bestselling book ‘Impossible Odds.'
She has since gone on speaking tours and is currently pregnant with her second child.
She still has a heart for helping those overseas, and she'd like to return to the foreign field someday.