Buried Alive by Roy Hallums

Title: Buried Alive
Author: Roy Hallums
ISBN: 9781595551702
Publisher: Thomas Nelson/2009
Pages: 241

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Synopsis

Contractor Roy Hallums recounts the harrowing ten months he was held captive by Iraqi insurgents, the heroic rescue by American troops, and the faith that helped him survive it all.

In November 2004 Roy Hallums was working late at his office in Iraq at the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company, supposedly well-protected by armed security guards, when four kidnappers broke in and hauled him away at gunpoint. The next ten months were the darkest of his life. Hallums spent most of his time in a concrete pit beneath a farmhouse, constantly bound and blindfolded. A small pipe in the ceiling provided the room's only oxygen - and its only link to the outside world. Hallums banked on one group in particular not forgetting his existence-the US military. And sure enough, on September 7, 2006, they successfully rescued him. This is the edge-of-your-seatstory of a trip through hell for Hallums, the daring rescue mission, and faith that brought him through the experience.

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On November 1, 2004, Roy Hallums was kidnapped from Baghdad by 20 gunmen, along with few other people. Those other hostages were released soon after but Hallum was in captive for 311 days. It is his story, a true account about what he endured in his captivity. Reading it was difficult enough for me and he lived through it. Also what his family had to undergo. They left no stones unturned to get him released.

It is an emotional roller coaster to read this book, an account which leaves us deeply moved. It speaks of a Iraq that we know nothing about. In the darkest moments of despair, Hallum retained his sanity and kept his spirits up. It is man's journey into himself and also a way of finding oneself in the unimaginable madness. The terror, the torture and then the triumph, all these make it a edge on the seat read. A book that inspires and speaks about human endurance, no matter what. It also gives us a good insight about the Middle East. The rescuers too deseve kudos. I salute to the spirit of Hallums.