Stepping foot on American soil is “like being born again,” said the Atlanta man who spent more than two years as a captive of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
George Glezmann landed in the U.S. Friday at Joint Base Andrews, outside of Washington, D.C. It was a long journey, flying from Afghanistan on Thursday to Qatar and then back to his home country.
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Retired federal agent George Taylor told Channel 2 Action News Investigative Reporter Mark Winne that Glezmann left Joint Base Andrews in the afternoon. He is flying to Texas where he will be debriefed and receive much needed medical treatment, as well as help with the emotional aspects of his captivity.
Glezmann, a Delta Air Lines mechanic before being captured, hopes to come back to work.
“I went through hell and back,” Glezzmann said Friday. “And one of the things, the two things that kept me going were my wife and my Delta Air Lines family.”
Taylor was there the moment Glezmann embraced his wife, Aleksandra Glezmann, for the first time in years. He said over the hours he spent the reunited couple this morning, it was clear the former Taliban prisoner was immensely grateful for the release engineered by the Trump Administration.
George and Aleksandra Glezmann were photographed in front of the airplane that brought him to the U.S. He had been a prisoner of the Taliban since they wrongfully detained him in December 2022 while he was a tourist in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Taylor told Channel 2 he was part of the very small team that lobbied for action by the U.S. government on Glezmann’s case for many months. Getting him home was a very big goal Taylor said the Trump Administration achieved by getting to work on it right away after taking office in January.
“When they abducted me, it was in a very, very violent way,” Glezmann said. “I am assuming that they called me, and I did not hear so they came in with their guns.
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Attorney Dennis Fitzpatrick, who teamed for months to secure Glezmann’s release, also joined the homecoming in D.C. Ryan Corbett, a New York man released by the Taliban in January in a prisoner swap and Glezmann’s former cellmate in Kabul, also greeted him.
Special presidential envoy Adam Boehler was the point man for the U.S. in discussions with the Taliban, and he flew into Kabul to retrieve George Glezmann and returned on the airplane with him.
“I owe (my wife) so much. Yeah, all you guys I owe Dennis. I owe President Trump, (Secretary of State) Marco Rubio, (National Security Adviser) Mike Waltz, Adam Boehler and everybody involved.”
Taylor says when he met the man that he, Fitzpatrick and Aleksandra fought for so hard, the reality hit him that George was home. Taylor says he joked with the freed hostage, who has a passion for exploring new cultures and visited more than 100 countries, that he was going to take his passport.
“Everybody that has been involved has my gratitude, and I cannot repay,” Glezmann said.
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