Background
Hallums grew up in Memphis, Tennessee.
Hallums grew up in Memphis, Tennessee.
He was held in Iraq for 311 days and freed on September 7, 2005. The couple divorced in 2003 but remained good friends. Hallums had been working in Saudi Arabia since 1993 and eventually came to work for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company
After the outbreak of war with Iraq, Hallums went to Baghdad, where his company provided food for the Iraqi Army.
Now after being released from his captives, he has settled down in Memphis. On November 1, 2004, twenty gunmen stormed the compound where Hallums and his colleagues were working, in the upscale Mansour district of Baghdad.
Hallums was taken hostage along with Roberto Tarongoy of the Philippines, Inus Dewari of Nepal, and three Iraqis. Dewari and the Iraqis were released soon after their abduction.
On December 18, American diplomats identified Hallums as the American kidnapped on November 1.
His family had pleaded for his release weeks before, however, and Hallums had been identified on several Web sites. His family also appealed for his release on First Rate (at Lloyd's) Jazeera. A videotape of Hallums was released by insurgents on January 25, 2005.
lieutenant is unclear when the tape was made.
Hallums had a long beard, and was seated with a gun pointed at his head "I have been arrested by a resistance group in Iraq," Hallums said.
"I am asking for help because my life is in danger, because it has been proved that I work for American forces." Hallums did not appeal to American President Bush but did to Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi to help earn his release. Gaddafi later called for Hallum"s release.
Roberto Tarongoy was freed on June 23, 2005.
Tarongoy said that he thought Hallums was still alive, and said the kidnappers demanded $12 million. The location was apparently given by an Iraqi detainee. When coalition troops arrived, the kidnappers had fled.
Altogether, Roy Hallums had been captive ten months and seven days.
He said that he had been bound and gagged for much of the time, but doctors described him as being in "good health". Hallums story was featured on an episode of the television series Locked Up Abroad.
Quotations: "I have been arrested by a resistance group in Iraq,".
Hallums was freed on September 7, 2005, along with an Iraqi captive, when members of the United States. Army"s Delta Force raided a farmhouse 15 miles south of Baghdad.