Tara McKelvey goes to kidnapping school:
How do you dress for an abduction?
That was the question on my mind as I prepared for my first day of kidnapping school — or, as it is officially known, Centurion Risk Assessment Services’ Hostile Environment and First Aid Course, a weekend-long training program designed to prepare foreign correspondents and aid workers for the worst. I had been told to wear old, comfortable clothes and eventually settled on a black top and Lululemon yoga pants. If they were good enough for a downward-facing dog, they would probably work in a hostage situation.
On an unseasonably cool Saturday morning in August, I signed some indemnity forms and boarded a van with nine other journalists and our course trainer Taff, a muscular, tanned Welshman in black flip-flops. As we rode toward the rural training ground in Woodstock, Virginia, we talked about the different kinds of assailants who target journalists. “Which is better — a thug or a trained assassin?” I asked. “Either way, what are you supposed to do?”
“Run,” an NBC producer said.
