Terry Anderson

Terry Anderson, the journalist forced to endure the longest captivity of any Westerner during the Lebanese Civil War, has died at age 76. 

Anderson was a Marine vet who served two tours in Vietnam as a combat journalist before joining the Associated Press as a civilian. That job took him to Lebanon in the midst of the civil war that dominated the news in the 1980's. On March 16th, 1985, Hezbollah Shite's abducted him off the street. 

He would not see freedom for six years and nine months. 

When he was taken Gorbachev had been in power 5 days. When he was released the Soviet Union had 22 days left before its dissolution. 

In many ways, Terry Anderson is a symbol of all that happened in between. 

It is impossible to document how much the name Terry Anderson influenced the background of my youth. He was a symbol of the troubled and violent Middle East, of the destruction of once beautiful Lebanon, of the Iran-Contra scandal that was in place party to secure his freedom, and of the misery and apparent hopelessness of his situation. 

Shuttled from one terrorist hideout to another, chained to a wall, beaten, given inedible food, and at one point left in solitary isolation for a year and a half, Anderson very nearly gave up  and thought of taking his own life. He credited his Catholic faith, as well as a stubborn streak, with pushing on: 

"People are capable of doing an awful lot when they have no choice and I had no choice."

By all accounts he led a quiet and peaceful life after his release, but the damage he endured lingered. Now, at last, he has the peace he deserved all along. 

RIP