Two days deep in a mission based in Turkey, I went out with a fellow agent. I was briefed before going out that if gunmen tried to stop us, don’t stop. Do what we can to barrel through them and get away, or we would surely be taken hostage and perhaps killed. I was also told the story of an American who had recently tried that tactic and was shot and killed.

So, when a gunman stepped into the roadway with his machine gun pointed towards us, I was torn as to what to do. I decided to take our chances and stop. After we stopped, another gunman stepped from a bush. They took us out of the car, and after some debate between the two of them, decided they did not want trouble from the American military and let us go.

We could have become hostages, but, luckily, we were not. Since then, I have learned quite a bit about hostage situations. You can be taken hostage anytime and anywhere. In this article, I want to discuss what to do if you ever find yourself in a hostage situation.

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