Buried Alive

The book Buried Alive is the extraordinary, true story of Roy Hallums. He was a retired U.S. Navy commander working as a civilian in Iraq. The Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company provided security for Roy Hallums and his co-workers as they worked to supply food for the American Army in Baghdad. Yet, one of the security team was actually a traitor who arranged for the security gate to be unlocked and led a gang of men into his office.
Mr. Hallums is kidnapped and moved from place to place until he reaches a small farmhouse. He is held captive in a small concrete hole underneath an Iraqi home. As this traumatic story unfolds, you hear not only of his mistreatment, but also of his wisdom as he deals with each situation. Roy Hallums was held hostage for 311 days enduring beatings, filthy conditions, bad ventilation, and a great deal of abuse. His family was not even aware he was in Iraq until his capture. The book does a good job of telling the story of both his and his family’s experience.
Buried Alive is not the type of book I usually read, and I actually considered handing it over to my husband for review. I’m glad I didn’t. I was amazed at Mr. Hallum’s ability to keep up with dates and his recall of details. It was shocking to hear how his family was treated during the events. It seemed as if the government considered them the enemy rather than victims. This well written volume gives you a good grasp of what it is like to be under terrorists control and how to respond. Even though Roy rarely mentioned faith, his example of taking each day as it came is a good example of living out Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

* I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I received no monetary compensation. All opinions expressed are my own.