Three U.S. defense contractors held captive for more than five years by Colombian extremists will receive the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart award this week at the U.S. Southern Command headquarters in Miami, according to a Department of Defense press release.
The Defense of Freedom Medal will be presented to Keith Stansell, who has family in Lakewood Ranch and Sarasota; Marc Gonsalves; and Thomas Howes during the ceremonies Thursday.
All three were injured during 1,967 days of captivity in the jungles of Colombia at the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, known as the FARC.
The Defense Department established the Defense of Freedom Medal after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to honor Defense Department employees and defense contractors injured or killed while supporting department activities. To date, 37 people have received the award.
Stansell, Gonsalves and Howes were crewmembers taking part in a mission to detect cocaine crops over southern Colombia on Feb. 13, 2003, when an in-flight emergency forced the pilot to crash-land the plane.
Stansell, Gonsalves and Howes wrote about their captivity in a recently published book.
Colombian military agents posing as humanitarian workers rescued the three men July 2, 2008.
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