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The Bobby Bones Show
TAKE THIS PERSONALLY: Jessica Buchanan on Her Kidnapping, Captivity, & the Life That Followed
01:03:27
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- [00:00]
Jessica Buchanan
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Guaranteed Human support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It's IT screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures want.
- [01:14]
Jessica Buchanan
To buy your way? Of course you do.
- [01:16]
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- [01:20]
Jessica Buchanan
Lot, then go back online? Sure.
- [01:22]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
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- [01:24]
Jessica Buchanan
Either works.
- [01:25]
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- [01:45]
Jessica Buchanan
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- [02:15]
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- [02:21]
Jessica Buchanan
Offer of half off unlimited wireless. So here's the idea. You get it now.
- [02:26]
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Jessica Buchanan
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- [03:02]
Morgan KMAN
A new series to officially kick off the new year. I know we're a few weeks late, but I did have some news to share with you guys before we got really into 2026. Many people see the new year as an opportunity to start fresh, try new things, do things they've always wanted, chase dreams. So I have some guests lined up to really hone in on so many of those things. This week. We're starting with Jessica Buchanan and her story is one that you'll want to hear and then you'll want to read her books. She was kidnapped in Somalia by pirates, held captive and rescued by Seal Team 6. And she's recounting the whole experience as well as how she is now surviving survival. I'm joined this week with Jessica Buchanan and I'm really excited to share your story because it is a one with so many twists and turns out. Jessica, thanks for joining me.
- [03:53]
Jessica Buchanan
Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
- [03:55]
Morgan KMAN
Let's get started at the very beginning. I would love for you to paint the picture of who you were until we get to that kind of moment where your life took a drastic turn.
- [04:04]
Jessica Buchanan
Sure. Well, I think the easiest place to start is in college. I was getting a teaching degree and like after my first year I went on a teaching trip to Honduras and got bit by the oh, I can travel and work at the same time bug. And then as I went through like my education courses, really got involved in we're young and so idealistic and naive and thinking that I could go out and save the world. And so got very interested in some of the things that were happening in East Africa and did a service trip and almost died on that one. But that's another story. And then I just felt really compelled and connected to continuing work in East Africa and especially like in the northern Uganda, South Sudan area. And so I had to finish up my degree and had an opportunity to do my student teaching at an international school in Nairobi, Kenya, which was not what I had in mind. It was like a fancy private school and it was beautiful and wonderful, but I wanted to be like getting my hands dirty and that kind of thing. But they offered me a job and it was my my best way in to, to Staying on the continent. So I took it. It was great. I started teaching fourth grade. Loved it. About two months into my teaching contract, I'm out with a bunch of my teacher friends one night. I always say it was a trashy nightclub because it really was. You're just like blowing off steam and having a good time. Yeah. You're a bunch of teachers who were.
- [05:36]
Morgan KMAN
Doing stuff and you wanted to.
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Jessica Buchanan
We're young. We're in this amazing, exotic place. And so we're dancing and I see this, like, cute guy across the room. And he looks up at me, he's on his phone. And I wave him over and he ignores me. Actually, he laughs at me and looks down again. And I thought, no, you didn't. I don't think so. He looks up again and I wave him over again, a little bit more like forcefully. Then he comes over and introduces himself. I think his name is Oric. And he tells me he's from Sweden. And I'd never met anybody from Sweden, so Oryx seemed like a likely name. That sounds Swedish to me. He was a terrible dancer, so I was like, how about we just go talk? And so we went and got a drink and we talked for four hours straight. And turns out his name is Eric. And I didn't know that until he wrote his email.
- [06:25]
Morgan KMAN
I like that it's. Or actually I.
- [06:27]
Jessica Buchanan
Every once in a while I call him or when I'm mad. That was like 20 years ago. So we've been talking ever since. And so people always ask me, how does a school teacher who grew up in the middle of a cornfield in Ohio end up working in a place like Somalia? And I'm like, well, it started with a guy. And so Eric at the time was working for an organization. He was the equivalent of a human rights lawyer, essentially, and his job was shifting and he was going to be based up in Hargeysa, Somaliland, which is the northern part of Somalia, where a lot of the NGOs were based in the UN had a presence there. And so we got married about a year and a half after we met. And I quit my job and moved up there with him.
- [07:09]
Morgan KMAN
Wow. Okay. And then Africa is where the story will take the turn. But I love that you guys met first of all. The fact that you felt compelled one to share education around the world, that's a really passionate and cool experience. So before we get to everything else, what was that experience like? Because I imagine that's not only fun and amazing, but also really eye opening. Oh, for sure.
- [07:35]
Jessica Buchanan
In so many different ways. Now, if I talk about formal teaching, like, again, it was a very different kind of environment. It was missionary kids, diplomat kids. I think we had 64 countries represented in the school. So I just was exposed to so much diversity. So many different types of ways of doing things, religions, jobs. It was just. It was very cool. But on the weekends I would go into Kibira slum, which is one of. I think it might be one of the largest slums in the world. It houses about over a million people. At least at that time it did. And this is like real poverty. So I would go in and tutor on the weekends. There were some orphanages there. And that is eye opening in a completely different way. I just love to help people understand things. So it doesn't really matter what the content is. I've realized throughout the course of my career that content is easy to learn, but trying to communicate it to someone so that they can be empowered and educate themselves is a real skill set. And it's one I happen to possess. And I've just. It was just really such a cool way to travel and to serve and to make a living. Yeah.
- [08:49]
Morgan KMAN
And then on that other side, getting to meet your husband this way and out in the wild, which is crazy.
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Jessica Buchanan
Well, it's so interesting because I was thinking about this the other day. My dad. I had a couple boyfriends in college and stuff, and I'd had a very serious relationship before all of that. And I just couldn't find anybody that I like, really clicked with. And my dad said to me, just go out and do what you love. Go to Africa. And the best place for you to meet someone is when you're out doing what you love and.
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Morgan KMAN
Wise words.
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Jessica Buchanan
Yeah, Very wise words.
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Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Yeah.
- [09:22]
Jessica Buchanan
I really carried that with me and it was really true and.
- [09:25]
Morgan KMAN
But you were also doing what you love in a club, having fun, dancing.
- [09:28]
Jessica Buchanan
We can love many things. Exactly.
- [09:31]
Morgan KMAN
And you meet your husband, who you said you guys are now obviously married and together and you have kids.
- [09:36]
Jessica Buchanan
Yes. Yep.
- [09:37]
Morgan KMAN
And is that crazy too, where you think about that portion of your life and the things that we're going to talk about, Just that it also brought you him and your kids.
- [09:47]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah, yeah. He is my person. Holy and completely. And that was very solidified in the moment of what we're going to talk about next, like dropping all these cryptic statements. Yeah.
- [10:00]
Morgan KMAN
This is not meant to be. But I just. There's so much backstory to you that's not all you are. So I wanted to make sure we appreciate that we paint the whole story first, so. So we can get a little bit deeper into the other things. Go ahead and share with us the piece that. Where everything really took the turn.
- [10:15]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah. So I was working in Hargeysa. We'd been there. I'd been there for about two and a half years at that point. So this is October 2011. I started out just tutoring and teaching English lessons. We had a compound that we were sharing with other aid workers. There were Ethiopian refugees living on the compound because we had the working farm. And there was a little girl there. She was there with her dad. Her name was Muslima. And there was no one for her to play with. And so I didn't have a job. So I was like, hey, basically, do you want to learn some English? And before I knew it, I had an entire dining room full of grown men, women, like all these people. And we were playing these English games. It was so much fun. That's the thing about teaching is like, you can always find a job. Like you can either create it or you can find one. And then word got out that there was a teacher in town, like an actual teacher. And I started doing work for the Ministry of Education and writing curriculum because they were developing their different departments of the government. So that was a real interesting experience. And then I did work for the un and then I started doing work for ddg, the Danish Demining Group, which was the Mine Action Unit of the Danish Refugee Council. So they were a non governmental organization that was really focused on armed violence reduction and community safety. They had a couple of mandates. One of them was to actually go into communities and do mine clearance because they. A lot of the communities that they worked in were maybe like 5, 10, 15 years post civil war. And there were still leftover UXOs or landmines that hadn't been cleared. And so it would leave parts of their communities unpassable. Or little kids would be out there playing and see something shiny and not know what it was and pick it up and it could still explode. So our job was to educate these communities on the dangers and also if we were able to clear them. So again, back to that. Like, I have no experience in mind clearance or any education in that, but it's easy to learn content. And then I was able to apply my edge, like my teaching pedagogical skills too, because when I walked in to one of their trainings, they're like writing English words on a flip chart. And you're sitting in this group of people who are nomadic, largely non literate, definitely don't speak English, so nothing you're doing is getting through to them. So we were able to come up with all kinds of creative things to, to impart these messages to help make the community safer for kids especially. And was so awesome. I got to travel all over East Africa, South Sudan, northern Uganda. I got to go into parts of Africa that you only see on National Geographic. It was the love of my life as far as my job was concerned.
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Morgan KMAN
We were doing important work.
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Jessica Buchanan
I felt like it was important. We weren't like delivering food assistance or giving medical care. Like we weren't emergency relief, but we were doing something that I really felt mattered and I felt good about my contribution. I didn't think I was out there saving the world, but I did feel like I was doing something meaningful.
- [13:21]
Morgan KMAN
But in a way you were to me, and I'm not sure anybody else, whatever, but to me you were providing education and giving people a way to communicate is a lifeline in itself.
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Jessica Buchanan
Yeah. Thank you. I think for those of us who've spent a lot of time in the like that world, we tend to downplay things.
- [13:38]
Morgan KMAN
And I'm here to make sure you don't.
- [13:42]
Jessica Buchanan
It's a whole culture and. But I appreciate that it, it did matter and it, at the end of the day, it almost cost me my life. But I had been part of. My portfolio included traveling down to the southern part of Somalia. So it's very nuanced. But Somalia at the time was divided into three regions. Essentially we lived in the northern part, Somaliland, which was self declared autonomous region. So they had like their own government, but they have never been recognized worldwide as like their own country. But they function that way. So things were much safer and more. There was more infrastructure there down in the south, like in Mogadishu. If you ever hear of anything on the news about Somalia, something bad has happened probably. And it's probably happened around Mogadishu. We had a field office in a town called Galkayo, which was north of Mogadishu. Definitely a little bit more precarious in terms of security. But we followed United nations security protocols and mandates. We had regional security advisors that we followed certain procedures and they gave us permission to go. And my colleague, a Danish gentleman named Paul, who was also a personal friend of mine, managed the operations down there. And part of my job was to go down there and support his team, his education team. But I had canceled the trip. I was supposed to go down there for a three day training. I canceled it twice because there were weird security things that were popping up. We weren't the target, necessarily, but. And again, not to get too in the weeds, but the town was divided in half, essentially, and it was governed by two opposing clans. And so if you got caught in the crossfire, which is what I was worried about, something bad could happen. And I just didn't feel like the work that I needed to do necessitated me going down there. So I canceled a couple of times. And then the third time the trip came up, I called him to cancel again. And he was, like, getting sick of it. He was like, look, if you're not going to get down here and do your job, then we'll find somebody who can. And I'm like, I get off the phone, I go talk to Eric. He's been in the area for so long. He knows everything there is to know, as far from a foreigner perspective.
- [15:56]
Morgan KMAN
And at this point, were you and Eric dating?
- [15:58]
Jessica Buchanan
We were married. You were married at this point? Okay, we'd been married for about a year, so very much newlywed still. And it was. You have to make those decisions all the time, right? Like, you have to assess the risk. And there's no. There are inherent risks to being in this part of the world, for sure. You take those on. But is there, like, anything that's super obvious? No. My regional security advisors gives me permission to go. So I'm like, what's the worst that can happen? Right. I'm a school teacher from Ohio.
- [16:30]
Morgan KMAN
Yeah, you're looking into. Nobody should need anything from me.
- [16:33]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah. I'm just here to help. It's not a big deal. You're just being paranoid. So I get on a UN plane, I go down. The training is three days. The first two days are in the northern part of the city. And we were actually staying on the compound where we were conducting the training. So I wasn't worried about that because I didn't have to leave. Right. What I was worried about is the third day of the training because we had to leave that compound and drive in a convoy of armed vehicles across town, essentially, to another part of the city. And I knew from, like, different trainings I'd taken, my organization required us to take these heat trainings. They're hostile environmental awareness trainings. And I knew I was most vulnerable if I was in transit. I get up that morning. I remember I didn't sleep, like, all night long. Paul and I had stayed up way too late. We were drinking white wine and watching, I don't know, Led Zeppelin concerts or something and just hanging out. And I didn't sleep, but I'd had these nightmares all night long, and they were really vivid. And in my dreams, our compound was being stormed by pirates. And I woke up, and I was like, ugh, it's just gross and stupid. And where did that come from? And I got up and went to the bathroom, and I remember looking at myself in the mirror, and I said out loud to my reflection, do you want to do this? Your body was yelling at you, and my intuition was just, like, doing cartwheels.
- [18:05]
Morgan KMAN
Like, we're trying to tell you in every way we can find a way.
- [18:10]
Jessica Buchanan
And all I kept doing was, like, pragmatizing my way out of it, right? Everybody's waiting for me. The trip has been planned. I spent all this money to come down here. What's the team gonna say if I don't show up? I'm gonna lose my job, all the things. And I just put my headscarf on and looked at myself one more time in the mirror and walked out the door. But it was just, like, into a different life.
- [18:37]
Morgan KMAN
So clearly, your body's sitting here trying to send a message, figuring out something's going on, whatever it may be, and so you decide to walk out that door that day. Does something happen in transit like you anticipated, or was it when you got to the location?
- [18:53]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah, so we get across the green line just fine, do the training. Everything's great. And at this point, right, it's three o' clock in the afternoon, and I'm like, I am home free. All I have to do is get from here to the guest house. I'm leaving first thing in the morning. I was so paranoid. I'm, like, chuckling at myself. Josh, you're just like, whatever. You just need to calm down, right? And so we're waiting for the convoy of vehicles to come and pick us up. And so convoy in that environment looks like Land Cruisers, like, big Land Cruisers. And you've got armed guards, like, occupying the front and the back in case something happened, right? And we have a driver, and we're waiting for the convoy to come in. And our security advisor, it's a Somali guy, his name's Abdul Razak. He keeps saying, okay, it's time to go. It's not time to go. Wait on the phone. And I think this is weird behavior, but at the same time, whatever, let's just get home. And so we get in the car, we pull through the gates, and we're driving. Ten minutes, maybe. I'm thinking about what I'm gonna have for dinner. Can I get my Workout in.
- [19:57]
Morgan KMAN
You're home free at this point.
- [19:58]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah, I forgot to send that one email to my boss. Let me do that. I text my husband. He's in another part of the country doing trainings. And so I'm like, okay. And then all of a sudden, this other vehicle comes roaring up on the right side and cuts us off and. And stops us to a halt. And mud splashes up all over the windows and the windshield of the vehicle, and we can't see because it had been raining earlier. And I look up and I just say to the whole car, what a jerk who drives like that? And to be fair, like, people drive like crazy. Like, in that part of the. Yeah, but in that part of the world, too. But it was just, like, so abrupt. And then all of a sudden, I hear somebody banging our hood with something hard. It turns out to be an AK47. And it sounds like we're being surrounded by men who are, like, shouting into Molly. And I'm thinking, oh, my God. And then Abdi Rezak, the security advisor, sitting next to me in the back seat, he's on the right side. His door is pulled open, and there's a very angry man dressed in a police uniform holding an AK47. He pulls him out, like, straight out of his seatbelt and slams into the ground. Hits him in the head with his gun, and then gets in the car and puts the gun to my head and start screaming at the driver to drive. And I'm thinking, like, I have two thoughts that are, like, racing through my head. They're very simple and very fundamental. And this driver's just, like, taking off. He just starts tearing through the town. He's, like, up on two wheels. He slammed back down. He's up on two wheels. Paul's in the front seat, and he's just, like, begging him, please stop. Please stop. Please slow down. You're gonna kill us. Because it feels like he's gonna flip the car. And I'm thinking, this is bad. This is bad. This is so bad.
- [21:38]
Morgan KMAN
You're probably going through shock.
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Jessica Buchanan
Yeah.
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Morgan KMAN
Not realizing what's going on.
- [21:42]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah, exactly. And then I kept thinking, like, I don't have anything to reach for. Right. I don't think I've ever seen a movie or read a book or taken a training that is giving me any frame of reference for this. Whatever this is, is so bad. And then I kept thinking, like, even if they stopped and they kicked us out of the car, and we're just being carjacked and they're just going to Take stuff and let us walk back to town. Like something in my life, in my worldview has shattered, like this belief or this idea or truth that I cling to, that the world is a safe place, which I realize is a very privileged place to come from. But I did feel that way. It has been shattered. And everything about my life is going to change from this moment on and how I live it and how I approach it. And of course, that is like, in retrospect that I can articulate that. What I was just thinking in those moments was, oh, my God, this is just so bad. We would drive for hours. We drive, we stop. They put other people in the car. It's like they were switching out teams or personnel. We stop, we're forced in other vehicles. At one point, I think Paul and I are separated, which was really scary.
- [22:58]
Morgan KMAN
Because you two were the ones that were taken.
- [23:00]
Jessica Buchanan
Yes.
- [23:01]
Morgan KMAN
And the driver was also taken at one point.
- [23:04]
Jessica Buchanan
No. Okay, so we were the only two foreigners, if you will. There were other Somali staff like our team. They were not harmed in whatever this is. The two foreigners. Of course, I don't know that. Like, I have no idea what's going on now. You do? Yes. Hindsight, exactly. But at that, in that moment, at that time, I'm just. At one point, there's a guy sitting next to me and he's got like a sheet wrapped around it. He's got like a turbine and he's got a machine gun in like an old machine gun, like really big and long and it doesn't fit in the vehicle. So he's hanging outside the vehicle. And then at one point we stop and I hear a high pitched voice right behind me and I think it's a woman. Like, oh, that would like, why would there be a woman involved in a kidnapping like this? What is going on here? Turn around and come face to face with a little kid.
- [23:58]
Morgan KMAN
That was one of the people helping in your.
- [24:01]
Jessica Buchanan
Yes, he's a little boy. He looks like he's nine. He's wearing belts of ammunition. He's got a gun that's bigger than him. And we like make eye contact and he does one of these numbers, like head nod. Yeah. And then tells me to turn around. And I'm just like, what hell have I stepped into? Yeah.
- [24:25]
Morgan KMAN
You're especially coming from a teacher perspective. You're sitting there and that's a kid behind.
- [24:29]
Jessica Buchanan
There's a little kid with an AK right behind my head. What is this? And I think. I don't know at what point it was, but I Paul was he turned around I think to check on me and I'm like what is it? And he says we're being kidnapped. And I'm like I think I'm have a panic attack. I think I can't breathe.
- [24:55]
Morgan KMAN
It's all setting.
- [24:56]
Jessica Buchanan
Yes.
- [24:56]
Morgan KMAN
What?
- [24:57]
Jessica Buchanan
What in God's name is us and why me? What is happening? And so we drive like into the middle of the night, have no idea how many hours but it had to have been like 12 hours.
- [25:08]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, LLC SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comdisclosures Now I'd.
- [26:18]
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- [27:47]
Jessica Buchanan
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- [27:59]
Morgan KMAN
Deck upgrades, done well.
- [28:02]
Jessica Buchanan
Electrical upgrade, done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years. So we know the difference between done and done well. Hire high quality pros@angie.com.
- [28:18]
Morgan KMAN
I'm assuming too, you don't know any of this language that they're speaking?
- [28:21]
Jessica Buchanan
No. First of all, Somali is a very difficult language to learn and it's not for lack of trying, but it's difficult. Yeah. No. Didn't know what was going on. I kept hearing them talk about American. They're talking really loudly. They're hyped up on this plant called cot chat. It depends on who you talk to. It's like speed. It's like an amphetamine. And they're like really hyped up and amped up. And so we stop. We're out in the middle of nowhere. There's. It's so pitch black. There's no ambient light. We are not near anything. We're just out in the middle of the desert and the guy with the machine gun shoves me out of the car and orders me to walk out into the desert. And I'm like, nope, I'm not doing that. I have no idea what's waiting for me out there, but I can guarantee you it's not going to be good. And so we go back and forth and he's like screaming at me to walk. And I'm like, no. And he's shaking his gun in my face. No. I'm pressing myself up against the car and Paul comes around the corner and he takes my hand and he says, jessica, we have to walk. And I'm just thinking, like, I, maybe I should have understood. I just don't understand, like how is this my life? Yeah.
- [29:43]
Morgan KMAN
You were going through probably so many different emotions of anger and sadness and shock and grief. Like it's all hitting you at this moment, I would imagine.
- [29:53]
Jessica Buchanan
Exactly. Yeah. And all I can think is I can't think very far forward because I don't want to, like, face whatever reality is waiting for me in those imminent moments. But I can feel that I'm heading. I'm like marching toward my death. And so as I, like, continue walking, Paul and I are like, hand in hand. And it's so dark and we're like tripping over thorn bushes and rocks. And I remember I gashed my leg on a rock and it starts bleeding. And I'm thinking like, okay, this is good. I can feel pain. This is. This must mean I'm still alive because at that point it feels so surreal that you're like, am I dreaming? Is this really happening? I feel like I'm floating over my body. I'm not grounded or tethered. I think also that's probably like a defense mechanism, right?
- [30:46]
Morgan KMAN
Fight or flight, for sure. You're going through an out of body.
- [30:48]
Jessica Buchanan
Experience and you're detaching from what's happening 100%. And I'm thinking, okay, I'm saying goodbye to Eric. I'm saying goodbye to my dad, my brother, my sister. My mom had passed away the year before, and so I felt her presence there very strongly. And I was just asking her to help me be strong, help me be brave, help me be dignified. I was very aware that I wanted to not have the last moments of my life be hysterical, crying and begging for mercy or something. I just. I wanted to be dignified in those moments. And so we just walk and more people come out of the shadows and we're being surrounded and there's like chains of ammunition. I just remember thinking of it and the weapons, and there have to be 20, 30, who knows how many men and who knows how many kids, but at least this one. And then we basically just get out into some like, random place out in the middle of the desert and they tell us to stop and get down on our knees. And I think, this is it. This is the end of my life. I'm 32, 31, and this is it. Like, I came here, I really did try to help. I tried to make a difference. Don't know why everybody's so angry at me and I'm sorry if I did something wrong.
- [32:09]
Morgan KMAN
You're blaming yourself for this.
- [32:10]
Jessica Buchanan
Oh, I'm just trying to make sense of how did I end up here. Yeah.
- [32:14]
Morgan KMAN
And what did it have to do with you? Well, you had so many questions that weren't answered for sure.
- [32:19]
Jessica Buchanan
And then I think there's also this. I'm a person of faith. And so there's this. God, why would you let something like this happen to me? You know, like floating around somewhere, can't catch any of the thoughts because they're just like flying, all of them at.
- [32:32]
Morgan KMAN
The same time while literally being in a situation where you don't know if the next few moments are the end.
- [32:38]
Jessica Buchanan
Right. And then you're like, is it gonna hurt? Are they going to rate? Wow.
- [32:43]
Morgan KMAN
Just every. Everything that you could possibly think that could happen is going through your head.
- [32:48]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah, absolutely. And then like things you're too afraid to think about happening. And so I'm on my knees, I'm waiting for a bullet to pierce my brain. I'm waiting for my head to be cut off from my body. And then I just hear one of them go sleep going, wait, I know that word. What does that word mean? Does that word mean what I think it means? Sleep, one of them says. And I'm just like, I don't understand. And then they like shove me to the ground. And I realized they want me to lay down in the dirt and go to sleep. And amazingly I do. I like us out. It's almost like shock. Yeah. Like unconscious. Right. And so for a couple, I guess for a couple of hours, I wake up and it's like becoming daylight. And I wake up with the realization like, oh my God, it wasn't that really. That happened. And I am quite literally in hell. And that would begin 93 days as a hostage out in the desert.
- [33:49]
Morgan KMAN
Oh my gosh. My, my heart is just racing for you. I can't even imagine that experience. Well, yeah, and I'm sure reliving it is also difficult in itself to, to walk yourself back through those moments. So. Thank you. I know that takes a lot.
- [34:05]
Jessica Buchanan
It does.
- [34:05]
Morgan KMAN
And I know sharing your story is just as important to you, but it doesn't negate the fact that this is difficult to share. And I just, I have so many follow up questions. First being, did you ever find out.
- [34:19]
Jessica Buchanan
Why they took you money?
- [34:22]
Morgan KMAN
They wanted money.
- [34:24]
Jessica Buchanan
It took about a week for us to get that answer. The scary part was we didn't really understand the context of who had us. So like in Somalia there is. They have their own version of ISIS essentially, or like the Taliban kind of. I'm probably. That's a bad comparison. But they're an extremist group. And that was what I was most afraid of. Have we been taken? Is this an ideological thing? Like, I'm a Christian white woman from America. Is, are they making a statement? If that's true, then I'm goner. And so it took a really long time to figure out who we could ask because mostly they just left you. If they weren't terrorizing you and threatening you, then they would just leave you alone and leave you off in the corner under a tree. And finally we asked this guy, his name was Abdi, who we figured must be the leader of the group to some extent. And he spoke some English. And we asked point blank, are you gonna kill us? And he said, no, no, no. We just want money. We just want money. And the relief I felt hearing, did.
- [35:32]
Morgan KMAN
You trust him when he said, that's.
- [35:36]
Jessica Buchanan
The interesting thing about this whole thing is, like you, I'll use my I words. I found that I would hold on to some of the most ludicrous, unrealistic information because my brain needed to hold on to something and convince myself that it was true so that I could, like, hang on and survive until whatever that happened. Right. So I felt so much relief finding out that, oh, no, we're not taking you for ideological reasons. We just took you for money. But then my heart sank again when I found out the ransom demand was $45 million. What from?
- [36:10]
Morgan KMAN
I'm assuming our government or was.
- [36:12]
Jessica Buchanan
They don't care where it comes from.
- [36:14]
Morgan KMAN
They just want money.
- [36:15]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah.
- [36:15]
Morgan KMAN
From whoever's willing to get.
- [36:16]
Jessica Buchanan
And were not terrorists. They were not extremists. They are just a gang of random people. It's not that random. It is. It's kind of like the mafia or something. They're crooks. They're criminals. They don't care where the money comes from, so. But America does not negotiate with terrorists is how they say it. But what they mean is they don't pay ransom demands. It's further complicated because you got an American and a Danish guy who work for a Danish company who were sent there by their company. It's not like we were freelance journalists out there gallivanting around Somalia. Our organization had sent us there to do a job and given us permission to go there. And so I did know somewhere in the back of my mind that our organization had insurance, like kidnapping and ransom insurance, which they don't talk about very widely because. Right. It's not.
- [37:07]
Morgan KMAN
It's going to deter a lot of hope people from working for you, and.
- [37:11]
Jessica Buchanan
It'S going to cause a lot more Incidents.
- [37:13]
Morgan KMAN
Oh, yeah.
- [37:13]
Jessica Buchanan
They know that there's. That's how this works. So that provided me a little bit of, like, mental relief, but also $45 million. Do you even know what that. Do you even. And we kept saying, we're two aid workers. We're not a container ship off in the Indian Ocean that you've overtaken a whole crew. And then all the stuff that's on the ship. We're two people that no one really cares about, like, other than our families. And then we heard that our organization countered at $20,000. And I'm like, look, I'm no mathematician, but that's going to take a really long time to meet in the middle. Yeah.
- [37:50]
Morgan KMAN
So that was the first sign of a negotiation happening.
- [37:54]
Jessica Buchanan
I guess so, yeah.
- [37:56]
Morgan KMAN
Okay. So were they also giving you food and water at all?
- [38:00]
Jessica Buchanan
They were, but not a lot. We would get water. We would run out of water. I remember there was an incident. Oh, man. And we were so thirsty because it's so hot during the desert. Yeah. It's really cold at night, but it's dry.
- [38:14]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Right.
- [38:15]
Jessica Buchanan
And dusty and really hot during the day. And one of them threw a jerry can at us. If you were to. Is this similar to gas can? Right. That they actually used for gas, but they would use it interchangeably for water, too.
- [38:29]
Morgan KMAN
Oh.
- [38:29]
Jessica Buchanan
And so you're. You got, like, water. You don't know the source. It's laced with diesel. And that's what they want you to drink, so that's your choice. Or just, like, feeling like you're gonna die from thirst. So it wasn't like that all the time, but sometimes. And then mainly what we ate was small tins of tuna. They had, like, little miniature cans of tuna. And people are always very fascinated by the fact that I had a pouch from my purse that they let me take with me that. That night. And I have a thyroid condition, and so I had medicine in it, and I had the wherewithal to ask them if I could take it with me the night that they took us. Wow.
- [39:07]
Morgan KMAN
And you needed that. I mean, did you not have that? What would that have been like for you?
- [39:12]
Jessica Buchanan
I would have gone into a thyroid storm and died. So I needed my thyroid meds.
- [39:18]
Morgan KMAN
One that you knew to ask in that whole.
- [39:20]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah. Something in my head was just, I.
- [39:22]
Morgan KMAN
Don'T know what's going to happen, but.
- [39:23]
Jessica Buchanan
I need this if I can. I know you're probably gonna just execute me, but also, in case you don't, I need my thyroid medicine. I don't know. Well.
- [39:31]
Morgan KMAN
And probably Looking back at that moment, too, in them allowing you to have it could have given you some context.
- [39:35]
Jessica Buchanan
I think it did. But I think I do remember thinking like, okay, if they let me. Why would they let me take my bag if they were going to kill me? Yeah. So. But I had a fresh tampon in there. Right. Because it's a bag that you keep in your purse. And after a couple of eating tuna out of a can with your hands dirty. You're disgusting. It's like, this is gross. And so I started digging through my powder bag to see is there anything in here I could use for a utensil. Turns out you can scoop tuna fish out of a can with a tampon applicator and suck it out.
- [40:11]
Morgan KMAN
And then I would watch innovation that.
- [40:13]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah. And I like, have made a couple of reels about that. And people are always like, what? And I'm like, it wasn't used. It wasn't like, I found a tampon on the ground out in the desert.
- [40:23]
Morgan KMAN
You found it. Think about your brain in that situation of being like, what can I use? And you found something and you just. You were focused on surviving.
- [40:31]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah.
- [40:31]
Morgan KMAN
You weren't focused on. I don't care what I'm using. I'm just trying to make this situation any way, shape or form better.
- [40:37]
Jessica Buchanan
I've got a statement. I've got a tampon. What can I. How can I use these things? What's that? I'm not going to get that phrase. What? Desperation is the mother of all invention. Is that it? Did I get that right? But you learn in a situation like this how resourceful you are.
- [40:54]
Morgan KMAN
Did that end up becoming, like, now, when you carry around a purse and everything, do you carry more things with you? Did that ever have a lot.
- [41:00]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah. My bag over there. I could probably live out of that thing for two weeks.
- [41:04]
Morgan KMAN
Really?
- [41:04]
Jessica Buchanan
For sure. But I also can see, like, how much you can survive on, how little you can survive on. Right. But I do have a thing. I've got lots of PTSD, lots of things that still. This has been 13 years that still impact me. And yeah, carrying around a bunch of crap in my bag is one of them. So.
- [41:23]
Morgan KMAN
Well, and if you're comfortable with it, I'd love to hear more about that experience because that's the other side of this. This is how not only did you survive and also we'll get to that. You were rescued by SEAL Team six, if I'm correct. But I want to hear the post of all of this. Like your experience going back into life after all this happened. The bag that changes things. But I also know you made a post about traveling and how flying on airplanes is also difficult. Like, walk me through those post this situation. Yeah, what that's like for you now.
- [41:56]
Jessica Buchanan
So I call this phase. And I think I'm like moving out of it, but it's taken me a really long time, but surviving, survival. So there's surviving the trauma, traumatic event, and then there's the after. And so for those of us who are fortunate enough to have survived whatever that event is, then we have to figure out how to. If we want to rebuild our lives in the aftermath of everything just falling apart. And so when I came back, when I was brought back, I didn't know who I was anymore. It. My identity had cracked because it had been so connected to my work. I had terrible ptsd. I had debilitating anxiety. I didn't feel safe in the world anymore. I didn't know what I was capable of doing anymore because my identity was very much wrapped up in my work. I couldn't continue going out in the field anymore because I just couldn't. I don't think anybody would also expect.
- [42:55]
Morgan KMAN
You to after that.
- [42:56]
Jessica Buchanan
Well, my organization did after a while, which is a whole other story, but yes. Right. So what am I gonna do? What am I qualified to do? All of those questions and then everything feels really overwhelming, really hard and scary. And that surviving, survival, a space is what gets people. It's what keeps them ruminating over the past. It paralyzes them and keeps them from moving forward because they're also drowning in shame because of whatever has happened, or perhaps they don't. They feel like they should be able to move on and through it, where the truth is, you don't move through any tragedy or trauma. You just continue to move forward and.
- [43:39]
Morgan KMAN
So never quite leaves you, I would imagine.
- [43:41]
Jessica Buchanan
No, never. And yes, I can talk about it now. Yes, I'll be extremely tired after this conversation. I know how to take care of myself now. But in those early days, and I was talking to a friend about this who's also been through some pretty hard stuff, and I've been extremely public about this also. I guess I didn't have to, but I did feel a sense of responsibility to. To say thank you and to be vocal and to share because of the link to the military and SEAL Team 6 in that community. Because it's true, if they hadn't come and gotten me, I would have died out there. And so it was a high profile media event. Again, I'm not going to act like some victim here that, oh, I have to go give speeches and write books and I've chosen to do that. That's been part of my healing journey and that doesn't work for everybody. But that takes a toll too. It's another part of just navigating the.
- [44:35]
Morgan KMAN
After well, and I totally understand that responsibility and that care that you want to give to your experience. There's a kindness almost to it that you're treating yourself and saying, hey, you went through this and I'm going to recognize it and we're going to do things that hopefully bring good from it.
- [44:49]
Jessica Buchanan
I hope so. Yeah.
- [44:50]
Morgan KMAN
And I would imagine that's mostly that goal for you and so. But to not recognize that still being able to share hard things doesn't mean it's easy. It's important and it's needed and it's necessary, but it doesn't again, negate the hardness that comes at two things can always be true, and that's what this is. So I think it's amazing that you're sharing and being willing to share because I cannot imagine going through an experience like this.
- [45:20]
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Jessica Buchanan
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Morgan KMAN
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Jessica Buchanan
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Morgan KMAN
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Jessica Buchanan
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- [48:30]
Morgan KMAN
You'Ve created a really beautiful life for yourself and you have kids. And I'm sure all of that came with so many levels of that ptsd.
- [48:39]
Jessica Buchanan
Yes.
- [48:40]
Morgan KMAN
But you've chosen to. You made the choice to. And I think that's really cool. And I know that is hard. It's a choice every day.
- [48:48]
Jessica Buchanan
It is. And it's an easier choice to make now. There were some really dark moments for a long time. It was really hard. I got pregnant with my son like a week after the rescue. Talk about a miracle. But that really threw me for a loop. I was like, wow, I really need a break here. Now I have to show up for this other human being. And in retrospect, of course, I know that was all the plan. Like that was part of the plan. Right? I had no, I don't feel like I Had a choice to heal because I needed to be. I had a responsibility to my children to go to therapy, to do trauma treatment, to do the journaling and the meditation and the prayer and be on anxiety meds if I need whatever it was so that I could be the most healed version of a mother that I could be for them. And I don't know. I would like to think that I would have taken those measures if I hadn't had kids, but most likely I probably just would have ended up drinking a bottle of white wine every night because I didn't have to show up for anybody the next day. And so I really see it as God's grace in my life that. That I did get pregnant so quickly. Wow.
- [49:56]
Morgan KMAN
But you were healing. You hadn't even. Gosh, you probably hadn't even decompressed from everything.
- [50:01]
Jessica Buchanan
I don't even know how my body, like, got pregnant or I lost 45 pounds.
- [50:05]
Morgan KMAN
Do you know if you were pregnant during that all was happening or did it happen?
- [50:09]
Jessica Buchanan
So I've written about this, and I don't know. It's not. No, no. Because I've written about it and published about it. I do believe. So my husband Eric and I were trying to get pregnant when all of this happened. And I do believe I had a miscarriage at the beginning of the kidnapping of captivity. I had some. I'd never had one before and haven't had one since. So I do believe that's what happened. And I really was grateful because I can't imagine how complicated everything would have been if I had been pregnant. So I don't really think about that or focus on that very much. But the fact that, like, with extreme quick weight loss, I was 119 pounds when I came out, and I'm almost 6ft tall. So that was significant. Significant. And then to be able to get pregnant and hold on to the pregnancy, like, I just. I don't know, it was just. To me, it's miraculous.
- [51:00]
Morgan KMAN
You just. I don't know how one person could handle so much of what you were going through. And also, you had mentioned very briefly that you had lost your mother a year before. I mean, just like, to make the choice to be here and to do the things is so beautiful. And it's a testament to who you are and the strength that you carry with you and the love that you have surrounding you. I imagine your husband was a critical part in your healing.
- [51:22]
Jessica Buchanan
And that is just the thing. Right. Like, I recognize how privileged I am, and I write about this a lot. I just Had a book come out, how to Survive Survival. And a lot like so many of us, none of us escape the human experience unscathed, where either we've survived something, we're surviving it right now, or we will. Like, that's just the human experience. What we don't get to choose is, like, some of us have more tools in our toolbox. Right. Like, we have family who is supporting us, or we have maybe resources available to us that other people don't have. And in my situation, I just feel so lucky. Yes. I have this amazing man who just. I knew he was a bulldog while I was sitting out there in the desert. I knew he was beating down every door. He was doing whatever he could to get me out of there. I knew my dad and my brother and sister were praying and supporting and doing what they could. And I also committed to my mental health recovery while I was out there. And I did good on that promise to myself. And so. But not everybody has those support systems or those resources. Sources available. And so I do think that I'm just really lucky in that regard.
- [52:33]
Morgan KMAN
And that's an important piece to this puzzle, for sure. At the end of it, to recognize the role your life has in it. And I love that you speak on just so many different angles and the nuance of all of it, because it's necessary to.
- [52:45]
Jessica Buchanan
I think. So none of it's like, black and white. Like, it's not, oh, well, this trauma is worse than this trauma. You can't compare anything. Because we are all working on different baselines. Yep. Like, for whatever reason, I just have a really strong mind. I was so worried that I was gonna have a psychotic break while I was out there, because if that. Where there was a time to have one, it would be then well into.
- [53:11]
Morgan KMAN
Nobody would fault you for that.
- [53:12]
Jessica Buchanan
No.
- [53:13]
Morgan KMAN
That would be completely fair and in your right to what was 100.
- [53:16]
Jessica Buchanan
But I knew that was my fear, and I needed to safeguard myself and figure out a way to keep myself as mentally strong as I possibly can. And it turns out the methods that I used while I was in captivity are still things that I apply to my life now even. Do you mind sharing them? No, not at all. It sounds so cliche, but, like, gratitude, it really. It's the easiest hack. Yeah. For surviving life. I got to a point where I would not go to sleep while I was out there on my mat on the ground until I could say five things that I was actually grateful for. And sometimes they were really pathetic. But I'm glad my toenail didn't fall off today or just really, really stretching it. It changes things, and it gives you the strength to make it through to the next minute. Sometimes it's minute by minute. And I have so much empathy for people who are struggling through something and don't feel like they can get out of bed, whether it's literally or metaphorically. And sometimes all you can do is just move your big toe and that's enough. And so for me, that's what it was like. I also spent a lot of time in reflection, and I'm a very reflective person anyway, and so that was easy for me to do, but I got really organized about it, and I. Again, I was grieving the loss of my mom. And so I used a lot of this time that I had to think about some of the dysfunction of our relationship and really find some closure in my grief process while I was out there. And it helped me gain some clarity around my mom and why maybe she did some of the things she did and why I responded the way I did. And I think there were some really beautiful moments of, like, forgiveness. And so all of those things can be applied very easily when you don't have a gun held to your head. And if they can be that effective then, then they most assuredly can be that effective now.
- [55:14]
Morgan KMAN
Well, and can I just mention that it's remarkable that you even thought to utilize those tools in a state where you were in fight or flight, because most of the time when you are in a fight or flight, it's really hard to one, advocate for yourself, to. To show up for yourself, to do all the things that are needed to take care of yourself, and you had enough wherewithal to just force yourself to give you that hope to move forward.
- [55:40]
Jessica Buchanan
Well, it also provided me an escape because what I've learned is that our minds are so powerful. No one, only you have control of your mind. No one else can gain entrance into your head. I will often say my body was being held hostage, but my mind had never been freer, because what I learned was the power of my thoughts. And what I focused on, what you appreciate, appreciates. Right? And if I had just been laying there in the fetal position thinking, oh, my God, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, then I probably would have. But that was helping no one. And so it really is. It's all. It's a mindset thing that is the hack, that is the way you win at life and how you survive. It is. It's all in your mind.
- [56:31]
Morgan KMAN
That's such a great tool that you've got to carry with you through.
- [56:34]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah.
- [56:35]
Morgan KMAN
So many things.
- [56:35]
Jessica Buchanan
I feel really grateful to have learned it. It would have been nice to have learned it outside of capt.
- [56:40]
Morgan KMAN
Any other way. Yeah, actually, like, any other way.
- [56:42]
Jessica Buchanan
But you know what? I'm not going to learn the lesson twice. I got it this time. So we're good. Yeah.
- [56:46]
Morgan KMAN
You're like, I. Yeah, that one will stay safely in my head forever.
- [56:50]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah.
- [56:50]
Morgan KMAN
I do want to talk about that rescue part side of this because you were rescued by Seal Team 6. So how did that even come to fruition? Did it involve your husband? Because you did mention how he was beating down doors and trying to make some moves and do things. So what happened in the rescue?
- [57:09]
Jessica Buchanan
So unbeknownst to me that when something like this happens to an American citizen abroad, the FBI gets involved immediately because it's a crime against an American. And so the FBI was working along with my organization. And because my husband had been in Somalia working and knew the environment, the landscape very well, not the physical landscape, but the cultural landscape rather. He was really brought in as an expert, Right. To run things past. And I had what were would have been a series of six proof of life calls. And those are when. Those are just like what you see on tv, right? They, like, put you on the phone for me. They would drive us deep, deep out into the desert, put us on a satellite phone, and we would talk to somebody from our organization and answer security questions that would identify us. What's your mother's maiden name? What's the tattoo on your back? Because they needed to make sure that we were alive still so negotiations could keep moving forward. And my sixth proof of life call was January 16, 2012. And it would be my final one, unbeknownst to me. And I said to the communicator who was speaking on behalf of our family, I listed my symptoms. I had contracted a UTI from being out there in the desert. And I was like, on week two of an untreated urinary tract infection, I knew it was moving into a kidney infection because I'd had one actually, like the year before. And I was hospitalized in Nairobi for a week. So pretty serious things, right? And I told her my symptoms and I said, I knew exactly what's happening. If you guys don't get me out of here, I'm gonna die. And I think I said something like, and it's gonna be all your fault.
- [58:53]
Morgan KMAN
Well, yeah. And you're speaking from a place of panic.
- [58:55]
Jessica Buchanan
And, yeah, you need to know how serious this is. This is. We are now at a life and death situation here. Right. And so I get off the phone, go back. My health continues to decline to the point where I'm like losing the ability to walk. I'm throwing up all the time. It's getting bad because you have to understand, I'm like outside the whole time. They don't take us to a house, they don't take us to a shelter. There's no bathroom. I'm not showering, I'm living outside.
- [59:23]
Morgan KMAN
And you're probably in the same clothes you've been wearing the whole time.
- [59:26]
Jessica Buchanan
I. Someone took my underwear. Okay, yeah, weird. Yeah, weird. I had washed them a couple days into cap after I'd had this massive whatever it was like miscarriage, I think. I washed my underwear and my pants and I laid them like on a bush to dry and somebody took them and so I kept asking for new underwear and they didn't understand what I meant and so I had no underwear. That.
- [59:54]
Morgan KMAN
Oh my gosh. And that's a. I mean talk about sanitary.
- [59:57]
Jessica Buchanan
Yeah, there's no barrier. I'm just going to the bathroom out behind bush. It's just sometimes I still can't believe I like did all that. So we get to 10 days later, January 24th, moving into the 25th, 2012, and I'm just in a really bad way. I'm in a lot of pain and like abdominal pain, cramping, high fevers. Paul helps me pull my mat out into the field where I'm gonna sleep. And there are nine guys on the ground that night. And I was always sleeping with machine guns pointed at my head like surrounding my mat. And then there would always be someone like sleeping next to me, guarding me or whatever. And I remember that night in particular, there were two stars that would come out at the same time every night. I know this sounds like I'm making it up, but I'm really not. And they're big and bright and beautiful. And I would, I named one for my mom. And so I would talk to my mom, mom every night and tell her there was usually not much going on, not much to report. But I remember saying to her, like, I need you to go and tell God that he needs to do something or else die out here. I just, I don't want this to be the. So I fall asleep, I wake up a couple hours later cuz I'm sick and I like get up and I'm saying toilet, toilet. Because that's how I asked permission to leave the mat. And they, all nine of them are passed out. They're like snoring, like they're like passed out. And I'm like, oh, this is weird because always at least one of them was up at night keeping, like, keeping watch over the camp. No one would wake up. So I picked up a small flashlight, like a pen light. And I start flashing it and I'm like, toilet, toilet. And I like crawl my way over to the nearest bush. I do what I need to do. I come back to my mat. Everybody's still completely passed out. I wrap myself up in my blanket and I can hear something like a noise, as if there's like maybe an animal or something walking toward me. It's not like just sand, it's sand and then tufts of long grass and shrub and stuff. And it sounds like something's breaking the grasses. And I don't know what it is. So I cover myself back up. And then the pirate who's sleeping on my left. I can't see anything because it has gotten really dark now. The clouds have overtaken the stars. There's no moon. But I can tell he's terrified. I can feel it. And he's standing up. I can tell he's holding his ak and he's whisper screaming at all the other guys into Molly like, wake up, wake up, wake up. And they're like rousing. All of a sudden this just like shot rings out. And I don't know who, where it came from. And then the night just erupts into automatic gunfire. And it's just like. And I'm like laying there on the ground like, oh my God, God, oh my God. Like we're being overtaken. I'm thinking we're being taken by Al Shabaab, because that was always the threat or maybe another group and we're going to be re kidnapped because that can happen just like laying there on the ground and I put blanket over and I'm trying to get as low as I can to the ground. I feel like if I could just disappear. I'm just praying to disappear and sink into the ground. And there are all these shots being fired. I can see sparks. And these guys are dropping to the ground. They're making the most horrific sounds. They're dying all around me. And then. And I'm just like, oh my God, oh my God. Over and over again. Oh God, oh God. And then somebody grabs my ankles and my shoulders and tries to pull the blanket away from my face. And I'm trying to protect myself. I have my Hands in front of me. And I'm just, like, just trying to shield myself because I don't know what. I don't know what they're going to do to me. And then all of a sudden, I hear the sound of a young American man's voice, and he knows my name. And he says, jessica, you're safe. And shock just overtakes me immediately. And I just. I start shaking and trembling, and I can't stop shaking. And all I can say over and over again is, you're American. Wait a second. You're American. Like, I don't understand where you come from. You're American. And they've pulled the blanket away from me and helped me sit up. And the soldier closest to me gets down on my level, and he says, we've been watching you for a really long time. We know how sick you. And he's got medicine. He's got antibiotics, and he's got a bottle of water. And he gives that to me, and I'm just like, I. I don't. Like, I just. Again, like, I have my. I can't process. I can't think straight.
- [64:27]
Morgan KMAN
It's the reverse side. Like when you got taken.
- [64:29]
Jessica Buchanan
Yes.
- [64:29]
Morgan KMAN
Now you're on the other side, and you're like, is that real? Is this happening?
- [64:33]
Jessica Buchanan
Exactly. Is this another? Is this a dream? Maybe. Maybe I've died. Maybe all these things are going through my mind, right? And then now I can start to make out there are all these soldiers around me. They've got these masks on. And one of them says, we've been watching, or, well. And he says, do you know where your shoes are? And I'm like, no. Absolutely could have no idea where my shoes are. And so he's okay, well, we got to get you out of here. We've got to take you to a place of safety. And I'm like, okay. And so he's. Here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna pick you up, and I'm gonna put you over my shoulder, and I'm gonna carry you to the edge of the camp. And I'm like, okay. And so that's exactly what he does. And I just will never forget. He's running across the desert. My head is, like, bobbing up and down, like, against his back. And I'm thinking, I am a school teacher from Ohio. How can this be my life?
- [65:21]
Morgan KMAN
You're like, at this point, is this real? Am I in a movie? Did this just get completely made up?
- [65:26]
Jessica Buchanan
What is this? And so he puts me on the Ground. My first question is, where's Paul? Did he make it out? Is he okay? And he's there, he's sitting on the edge of the camp and he leans over and he says, jessica, do you know who these guys are? And I'm like, I have no idea what is going on. And he's like, this is Seal Team 6. These are the guys that got us modern.
- [65:48]
Morgan KMAN
Wow.
- [65:48]
Jessica Buchanan
And I'm like, I'm, what? What? And then it would just unfold from there. It's just been the most life saving, life giving and life changing experience of my life in so many ways. But what tremendous, tremendous. This community and individuals they are from. At one point they weren't sure the premises were safe. And so they had Paul and I lay down and several of them laid down on top of us to guard us. And then the rest of them formed a human shield. And of course I didn't understand this at the time, but not only did they like jump out of a plane from 25, 000ft up in the air, hike in three miles, and then take out all of these guys for someone they don't know. And then we wait for the hilos to come in and it's a medical helicopter. So we start receiving medical treatment right away. And then they put us on a plane in Galkayo that's going to take us to Djibouti, which is like, I don't expect people to know where this is, but it's another African country up right above the Horn of Africa and there's a big American military base there. And so we're going to receive treatment there. And on the way there, the lights are up and we're on this plane and all these guys, they're like celebrating. They're hooping and hollering and they're like, are you hungry? Do you want to snicker bar? We've got chips and salsa and I can't make words come out of my mouth. I just remember I'm wearing this like smolly dress. It's completely ripped down the back. I'm filthy, I have no underwear on. Like, like my hair. I've been combing it with a fork. I got a fork. Like, I am a shell of the woman that I once was. And I feel so embarrassed by my, like, appearance and also so grateful. And I'm panicking because I'm thinking, oh my goodness, I've lost all my social skills. Maybe I'm a total freak. Talk to people again because I've spent so much time in the desert and solitary confinement. I'm like, like, freaking out. And one of them comes over to me very quietly, and he gets down on my level and he puts something in my lap. And I look down and I see that it's an American flag, a full that they brought on the. He just says, welcome home. Okay.
- [68:14]
Morgan KMAN
I'm gonna start crying. I'm just imagining the experience you're having.
- [68:18]
Jessica Buchanan
Every time I tell it, and I've probably told it a thousand times, and I'm just like. I don't know that I was, like, especially patriotic. I mean, grateful to be an American for sure. But in that moment, I was just like, this is what it's. To belong to a country who will leave nothing, but they don't leave people behind in. In that regard. And I just. Tears just ran down my face. And then the words. Words, they came out. Then they could come out, and it was just, thank you.
- [68:54]
Morgan KMAN
All that gratitude and just days of gratitude were probably pouring back out of you.
- [68:59]
Jessica Buchanan
There's nothing more you can say but thank you.
- [69:03]
Morgan KMAN
Your story is so special, Jessica. And I know it was never part of your plan, and it was never something that you'd like to repeat ever again.
- [69:14]
Jessica Buchanan
No.
- [69:15]
Morgan KMAN
But for you to be able to be the one, to be the vessel to continue to share the story, to share all these bits and pieces and moments, because there's so much more. And I wish I could have you here to share it all, but I think you'd actually need a week to really recover if we truly dove all the way in. But your story is so important, and I'm so glad that you took the time to be here. And I do want you to shout your book out again in your social media because people can continue to follow your story.
- [69:42]
Jessica Buchanan
So if people are interested in learning more about the actual event, Impossible Odds, the kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and her dramatic rescue by Seal Team 6. And then I have a lot of anthologies and Desert mountaintops, and then the latest book is how to Survive Survival, A guide for turning life's hardest moments into meaningful contribution for the world. And I do hang out on Instagram way too much. Jessica C. Buchanan. So I'd love it if people reach out and connect with me. I love hearing people's stories, helping them tell their stories and just connecting well.
- [70:14]
Morgan KMAN
And the way we always. In this podcast. And there is no one better to ask, but I like to end it on something inspirational, motivational, or just something maybe we didn't get to. That's heavy on your heart that you want to share And I just give the platform over to you.
- [70:26]
Jessica Buchanan
So I have a good friend, his name is Martin, and he has an incredible story of his own. And so I feel like it's important that I people understand that. I didn't say this, but he said it to me during a conversation and it's changed my life. He said things don't happen. They don't all always happen for a reason, but that doesn't mean we can't derive purpose from it. And so I just feel like that so perfectly encapsulates my situation. Right. Like my story. I didn't spend a whole lot of time in the aftermath thinking about asking, why did this happen to me? I asked, why did it have to change everything? But I write about that and how to survive, survival. But I really do believe, I really, really do believe that the key to healing from the hard stuff that happens to us in life is to connect with some sort of purpose outside of ourself. And so if anybody's listening to this and they're in a place where they're like wondering now what? I really hope that something in my story connects and you feel inspired to think about the fact that perhaps things changed because they had to and that there is, there really can be a purpose for it all.
- [71:35]
Morgan KMAN
Jessica, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart because again, I know that that could have been really hard to just repeat all the stories, all the moments, all the emotions, the really reliving that experience. And I know that it will change some lives and it will continue to do so. So thank you.
- [71:54]
Jessica Buchanan
Thank you for the opportunity. It's my honor and privilege.
- [71:57]
Morgan KMAN
Jessica is such an incredible storyteller and beyond brave for willing to share her story in order to help others in so many ways. A reminder that you can watch every single interview of the podcast on YouTube @webgirlmorgan. You can follow the podcast Instagram for extra content. Akethispersonally, as always, I'm so happy that you're here. Thanks for showing up and supporting. Let me know if there are any guests you hope make it onto the podcast this year because I will be checking the DMs for that and any other questions, comments, concerns, hit me up there too. So bye for now.
- [72:28]
Jessica Buchanan
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Jessica Buchanan
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Jessica Buchanan
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Morgan KMAN
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Morgan KMAN
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Jessica Buchanan
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Morgan KMAN
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Jessica Buchanan
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Jessica Buchanan
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Morgan KMAN
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Jessica Buchanan
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- [74:28]
Jessica Buchanan
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