Running late for work one morning in September 1994, Tom 
Hargrove, communications director for an international agricultural aid 
organization in Cali, Colombia, was mildly annoyed when he spotted 
a roadblock, or retén, manned by soldiers in fatigues. He chafed 
at the delay, but told himself that guerrillas and kidnappers didn't 
operate on a main highway in broad daylight.

    But Hargrove had been dreadfully mistaken. Despite his assertions 
that he worked for a non-profit agricultural agency, he was forced at 
gunpoint into a vehicle and driven into the mountains by communist 
narco-terrorists who believed he was a valuable hostage.

    For almost a year, Hargrove was held by the guerillas and moved 
from one remote location to another. To maintain his grip on sanity, 
he recorded his daily experiences in makeshift journals: in a 
checkbook; on children's notebooks; and on scraps of paper 
scrounged during his ordeal.

     Hargrove's story, originally published in 1995, was the basis for 
the major motion picture Proof of Life, starring Russell Crowe and 
Meg Ryan. Now available again in paperback, Long March to 
Freedom chronicles one man's spirited determination to hang onto 
life and faith amid nearly impossible circumstances.

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THOMAS R. HARGROVE lectures on his experiences for private 
security firms, insurers, antiterrorism and law enforcement agencies, 
the military, and speaks for business, professional, and civic groups. 
His story has been featured on 60 Minutes, 20/20, the Discovery 
Channel, the BBC, and in Vanity Fair. Hargrove is also the author of 
A Dragon Lives Forever: War and Rice in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. 
He lives in Florence, Alabama.