U.S. Navy veteran kidnapped, held hostage by Taliban describes experience

Amna Nawaz:

It's been nearly 17 months since the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan.

When they departed, they left an American behind. Contractor and U.S. Navy veteran Mark Frerichs was kidnapped and held hostage by Taliban forces for over two-and-a-half years. He was released as part of a prisoner swap last September, and is now adjusting to freedom and life back in America.

I went to Lombard, Illinois, where he's staying with family to sit down with Mark in his first television interview since being freed.

Mark Frerichs, Former Taliban Hostage:

You just have to be able to totally relax your body. And you just walk off from your toes to your head and just imagine your muscles relaxing from your toes, your ankles, up your shins, your knees. You just talk yourself through your body.

By the time it gets to your head, you can't feel your body, for me, anyway. I can't feel my body. My body is like it's you're sleeping. So you're sleeping, but you're awake. Your brain is totally aware of what's going on in a room. And you can do whatever you want.

(LAUGHTER)

Amna Nawaz:

This is how 60-year-old Mark Frerichs says he survived two-and-a-half years held hostage in Afghanistan, busying his mind and body under brutal conditions.

Mark Frerichs:

OK.

Amna Nawaz:

He's just marked three months of freedom back in his hometown. And he spoke exclusively to "NewsHour" in his first television interview.

Growing up here in Lombard, Illinois, did you dream about traveling the rest of the world?

Mark Frerichs:

Well, I was in the Navy for five years and did a lot traveling. And that kind of got me interested in what's going on in the rest of the world.

Amna Nawaz:

These are your from your time in service too, right?

Mark Frerichs:

Oh, Yes. Yes, this is just stuff I got. I think I sent this from Afghanistan. And, yes, this is stuff they gave me.

Amna Nawaz:

He left the Navy in the mid-1980s, moved back to the Midwest, and became a contractor, building on his love of craftsmanship.

Look at that.

Mark Frerichs:

Solid oak, all oak.

Amna Nawaz:

Wait. Wait. Wait. You always put a secret compartment into what you build?

(CROSSTALK)

Mark Frerichs:

Secret compartment.

Amna Nawaz:

Why did you do that?

Mark Frerichs:

It's just my trademark when I build stuff.

Amna Nawaz:

As opportunities to build arose overseas after 9/11, Mark jumped at the chance, first to Iraq, then to Afghanistan in 2009, where he put his skills to good use.

You were there building things is the simplest way to put it.

Mark Frerichs:

Building army garrisons for the ANA, Afghan National Army, which included complete — complete bases with hospitals, dining facilities, maintenance facilities, classroom facilities, office facilities, living quarters.

Amna Nawaz:

But you have always liked building things, right?

Mark Frerichs:

Yes.

Well, it's fulfilling to me to take nothing and turn it into something.

Amna Nawaz:

Life in Afghanistan was a world away from the one he grew up in, the middle son with two sisters, the shy kid who turned to magic as a way to connect with others.

And over 10 years in country, he built a life. Before long, he was relaxed and up to his old tricks.

Mark Frerichs:

Good, good, good.

Amna Nawaz:

Did you ever think, in your 10 years there, I might get kidnapped?

Mark Frerichs:

No.

(CROSSTALK)

Mark Frerichs:

Well, I mean, you can't not think about it.

Amna Nawaz:

Mark says he kept the same driver and security for eight years. But, in January of 2020, as he drove the familiar road from Kabul to Bagram Air Base to check on a construction project, the worst-case scenario.

There's been a horrific accident. You believe your team is dead. You yourself are really badly injured, right? What is the moment that you realize this has gone horribly wrong, I think I'm getting kidnapped?

Mark Frerichs:

Well, I was laying in a ditch on the hood of the car, of the SUV. The windshield is completely knocked out. Everyone's standing around. Nobody was helping me.

I'm still thinking, well, maybe there's — maybe there's police or army here or something. Finally, they help me up out of the ditch. So I'm taking, well, these guys are going to help me to the hospital.

Amna Nawaz:

What does it feel like in the moment?

Mark Frerichs:

I could — I could barely walk. I was like half conscious, half not conscious. So they walked me — just dragged me.

And as they were dragging me, one of them — and these are words that I will never forget. They're probably the worst words I have ever heard in my lifetime: "Taliban good, America no good."

Amna Nawaz:

He says that to you?

Mark Frerichs:

Yes, as he took my shoes and kicked me in the trunk.

So, that's when I knew for sure.

Amna Nawaz:

And they start driving.

Mark Frerichs:

Yes.

Amna Nawaz:

How long were you in that trunk? Do you know?

Mark Frerichs:

At least two days.

Amna Nawaz:

Mark says he thought he was being taken towards the eastern Afghan city of Khost, known as a stronghold of the Taliban-aligned Haqqani group, who U.S. officials believe were holding him.

Mark Frerichs:

They bring me to this compound areas. It's still just these four kids. I could tell that they were organizing things on the radio beforehand.

Amna Nawaz:

You call them kids. They're just like young men, look like teenagers?

Mark Frerichs:

Yes, they were — yes, they were just teenagers.

Amna Nawaz:

With guns?

Mark Frerichs:

Early 20s. Yes, teenagers with guns.

And that, even if I could get away from these people that, that where am I going to go? But I didn't know what they were going to do. I don't know if they were just going to kill me or what they were going to do with me. So — and they seemed like they didn't know what to do with me. I think I caught them off guard or something.

Amna Nawaz:

U.S. officials tell the "NewsHour" they believe Mark may have been surveilled, but that the kidnapping, on the heels of a horrific car crash, was a crime of opportunity.

Mark, for most of your time in captivity, you're kept in what you have described as just a room with a dirt floor.

Mark Frerichs:

Yes.

Amna Nawaz:

With very little else.

What do you remember about what it felt like in that room?

Mark Frerichs:

Evil. Evil. Cold. Dank — or, actually, dry. It rained a few times, and the roof leaked. There was mice running around. Had a bat fly around for a couple nights. Scorpions.

Amna Nawaz:

What did you sleep on every night?

Mark Frerichs:

Just the ground, the dirt ground, the hard dirt with a donkey blanket.

Amna Nawaz:

What did you eat every day?

Mark Frerichs:

Bread and water, mostly, stale bread and dirty water.

Amna Nawaz:

Could you move around freely in that room?

Mark Frerichs:

No. I was chained up. I had — my wrists were chained and my ankles were chained.

Amna Nawaz:

For how long?

Mark Frerichs:

Two years straight.

Amna Nawaz:

What did they do to you?

Mark Frerichs:

Well, basically, physical abuse. Beat with a chain several occasions. Beat with a wire coax cable on several occasions. Kicked in the head more times than I can count.

Just punched in the head more times than I can count, when I'm down on the ground chained up, just open palm, ear, smacks. That was probably the worst.

Amna Nawaz:

But, all that time, 32 months, right, 32 months, your mind goes to a lot of different places.

What do you remember thinking about?

Mark Frerichs:

Besides meditating, I thought a lot about my childhood.

Amna Nawaz:

What did you think about?

Mark Frerichs:

A lot of places we visited.

Amna Nawaz:

What is our destination? Where we going?

Mark Frerichs:

We will go to the pond first.

Amna Nawaz:

In a snow-coated Lombard, Mark took me to those childhood spots he would visit in his mind.

Mark Frerichs:

Yes, this is where I used to ice-skate when I was a kid. Lombard Lagoon.

Amna Nawaz:

Really?

Mark Frerichs:

Yes, it's not even a pond. It's a lagoon. It's kind of — it's not very deep. If you fell through the ice, you wouldn't drown.

(LAUGHTER)

Mark Frerichs:

So, it was safe.

It's a carefree time when you're a child, you know? Maybe a way to distract myself, yes.

Amna Nawaz:

Distract himself from his reality, held hostage in remote parts of Afghanistan.

During Mark's isolation in captivity, he had no idea about the coronavirus pandemic, Russia's war in Ukraine, or that his government had brokered a deal to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021, a deal that did not include his release.

And you are watching your country leave. What do you think?

(LAUGHTER)

Mark Frerichs:

Collateral damage. Do they even know I'm here?

(LAUGHTER)

Mark Frerichs:

Do they even know I'm here?

Amna Nawaz:

As a cruel joke, his captors showed him videos of the U.S. pullout in August of 2021.

Mark Frerichs:

Last planes leaving.

Amna Nawaz:

The last U.S. planes leaving Afghanistan?

Mark Frerichs:

Last U.S. planes leaving.

Amna Nawaz:

Despite feeling abandoned by his country, Mark says he never let his fear show.

Mark Frerichs:

I handled it like a trooper.

So, you know, the three years, I never broke down and cried, never — came close, but I wasn't going to let them — they may have stole nearly three years in my life, but I wasn't going to let them steal my soul and spirit.

Geoff Bennett:

His response to your question, what did that room feel like, and he says evil, it speaks volumes.

He was released in September of this past year, right?

Amna Nawaz:

Just this past year.

Geoff Bennett:

What have the last four or five months been like for him?

Amna Nawaz:

I mean, just a whole new journey that's unimaginable in so many ways.

I mean, Geoff, what this man endured is so staggering, and his strength and his fortitude are so impressive, right? That — I think even more impressive were the efforts to release him, what his family went through and what he's going through now back at home.

We're going to get into all of that in part two tomorrow.

Geoff Bennett:

Can't wait to see it.