Boulder Grad Aids In Hostages' Safe Return

BOULDER, Colo. -- Capt. Heidi Bucheit brought her father to tears Thursday when she explained her mission to pick up three U.S. hostages –- rescued after five years in Columbia.

"It was very moving to hear what she had experienced," said Penny Triggs, Bucheit’s stepmother.

Bucheit, 30, graduated from Boulder High School and the Air Force Academy.

Bucheit was the pilot on the flight that brought the three men from Columbia to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, Wednesday night.

"She had no idea what the mission was going to be," said a proud Tim Triggs, Bucheit’s father.

Bucheit’s mother, Nancy Ranney, also lives in the Boulder area.

"The best was just getting to talk to the three guys,” Bucheit said by phone Friday.

Bucheit said she offered some homemade chocolate cookies to one of the men during the flight.

The man got quiet.

"And he said, 'You will not believe this but two days ago we were lying on the jungle floor talking about if we were at home what would we most want to eat,'" Bucheit explained.

"He said he really wanted homemade chocolate chip cookies and he couldn't believe that two days later he was on a plane and got to have cookies," Bucheit said.

Bucheit told 7NEWS she was instructed not to identify which former hostage delighted in the freshly baked cookies.

The U.S. military contractors, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, had been held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia since their drug-surveillance plane went down in the jungle in February 2003.

Bucheit told 7NEWS the men marveled in technology they’d missed – like cameras in cell phones. Bucheit also said the men remember the price of gasoline closer to a dollar.

"She said, 'I feel so honored,'" said Penny Triggs about Bucheit’s mission.

On-board the Bucheit’s flight were seven doctors, who were part of a 17-person crew, Bucheit said.

Bucheit told 7NEWS she was impressed by the men’s courage and seemed to be in good spirits after years in captivity.

"They seemed to know they were going to get through it. They had a lot of faith in the country and decided they were going to live because they wanted so much to live to see their families again," Bucheit said.

Bucheit flies C-17 cargo planes. She and her husband, who is also a pilot, are stationed at Charleston Air Force Base in Charleston, S.C.