Roy Hallums Memoir

Cordova man tells of 2004 kidnapping in new book
By Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal, November 16, 2009

Roy A. Hallums, an American contractor held hostage for 311 days in Iraq, has written a memoir, Buried Alive: The True Story of Kidnapping, Captivity and a Dramatic Rescue. The book is due for release in January of 2010.

Hallums was rescued by the US military on September 7, 2005.

Americans Missing in Iraq - November 2009

This is an update to a post from January 14, 2009, US Hostages in Iraq.Last fall, an article from the Associated Press provided statistics from the Defense Intelligence Agency on Americans who were kidnapped in Iraq.

Iraq calmer but copycat kidnappings spread
By Pamela Hess, Associated Press, October 13, 2008

Five years ago, retired Air Force intelligence officer Kirk von Ackermann became the first of 39 Americans to be kidnapped in Iraq. He's still missing, his wife fearing she'll never see him again.

In May of 2009, a contractor, Jim Kitterman, was abducted in the International Zone (IZ) and murdered bringing the total of Americans known to have been kidnapped in Iraq to 40.

Attached is a chart showing the incident date, name and status of those 40. Technically, the status of 'released' should more properly be referred to as 'Returned to Military Control' (RMC).

As mentioned in a previous post, there is good reason to believe there are more Americans missing in Iraq than those who have been reported. Employers and family members may choose to keep quiet for a number of reasons (ransom, etc). Just to be clear, 40 is the minimum number of those known to have been kidnapped in Iraq to date.

Not included in the chart (at this time) are the troops taken POW (status: missing) during the invasion of March 2003. All were Returned to Military Control:

Spc. Edgar Hernandez
Spc. Joseph Hudson
Spc. Shoshana Johnson
Pfc. Patrick Miller
Sgt. James Riley
Pfc. Jessica Lynch
Chief warrant officer David Williams
Chief warrant officer Ronald Young Jr.

American Hostages in Iraq

Kirk von Ackermann
Thomas Hamill
Nick Berg
William Bradley
Keith Matthew Maupin
Timothy E. Bell
Aban Elias
Micah Garen
Jack Hensley
Olin Eugene Armstrong, Jr.
Paul Taggart
Roy Hallums
Dean Sadek
Jeffrey Ake
Tom Fox
Ronald Alan Schulz
Jill Carroll
PFC Kristian Menchaca
PFC Thomas Tucker
Sgt Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie
Jonathon Michael Cote
Paul Christopher Johnson-Reuben
Joshua Mark Munns
John Roy Young
Ronald Withrow
Sgt Alex Ramon Jimenez
PFC Byron W. Fouty
Jim Kitterman

+ unknown persons