Watch our 45-minute documentary ‘Taken: An American Hostage Story’
The masked men pull up in a white van and step into the airport carrying guns.
Mark McAlister and John Hamen III had just landed in Yemen. They were the only Americans in an empty airport, and they were targets.
Read the full story: Taken | The harrowing tale of two Americans kidnapped overseas
Mark was a construction manager from a small town in Tennessee. John never wanted anything but to join the Army. They'd both been hired to help renovate a hotel for the U.S. State Department in the Middle East.
In the middle of a brutal civil war, they soon became bargaining chips.
"Taken: An American hostage story" examines their abduction and how their lives were forever altered. You might not be able to point out Yemen on a map, and you might have never heard of the Houthis before. But this is a story about death and survival. This is a story about what happens after your life becomes national news – when the spotlight fades, but the suffering doesn't.
This is a story about the hidden cost of war.
Watch this documentary on the Cincinnati Enquirer's YouTube.
Taken: An American hostage story (45:39)
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Exclusive premiere: Watch ‘Taken: An American Hostage Story'
