‘We got our miracle’: Freed Americans back home in Alabama
Andy Huynh, left, and Alex Drueke, far right, are seen hugging their loved ones after arriving at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Ala., Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022. The U.S. military veterans disappeared three months ago while fighting Russia with Ukrainian forces. They were released earlier this week by Russian-backed separatists as part of a prisoner exchange.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Two U.S. military veterans who disappeared three months ago while fighting with Ukrainian forces against Russia arrived home to Alabama on Saturday, greeted by hugs, cheers and tears of joy at the state’s main airport.
Alex Drueke, 40, and Andy Huynh, 27, had gone missing June 9 in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border. The Alabama residents were released as part of a prisoner exchange. The pair had traveled to Ukraine on their own and bonded over their shared home state.
“It’s them!” a family member shouted as the pair appeared at the top of an escalator at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, one of Alabama’s largest cities.
Smiling but looking tired, the two were pulled into long emotional hugs by family members after their connecting flight home. Then they were whisked to a waiting car.
“Surreal. I still have chill bumps. I always imagined this day. I always held not just hope but belief in this day. But I thought it was going to be two or three years from now at best,” said Drueke’s aunt, Dianna Shaw.
“There are prisoners of war who have been held for months and years. There are people who have been detained wrongfully for years and for this to come about in three months is, just, unimaginable to me,” she added. “Even though I’m living it, it feels unimaginable, and I don’t want people to forget all the Ukrainians who are still being held.”
The families of the two men announced their release on Wednesday. The men were among 10 prisoners released by Russian-backed separatists as part of a prisoner exchange mediated by Saudi Arabia. The Saudi embassy said five British nationals and others from Morocco, Sweden and Croatia also were freed.
Darla Black, whose daughter is engaged to Huynh, said she thought, “there he is. There he is” as Huynh came into view.
“I had to get my hands on him to actually believe it. I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude. We got our miracle,” Black said.
The men had arrived Friday at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“We’re looking forward to spending time with family and we’ll be in touch with the media soon,” Drueke said shortly after arriving in New York with Huynh. “Happy to be home.”
Sexual misconduct allegations in UN missions topped 100 in 2024
The United Nations has long been in the spotlight over allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially by those based in Congo and the Central African Republic.
Mexico City bans violent bullfighting, sparking fury and celebration
The decision sparked angry protests from bullfighting supporters and matadors, some of whom tried to breach a police barricade at the local Congress.
Louisiana executes Jessie Hoffman by nitrogen gas in 1st use of death penalty in 15 years
With Hoffman’s execution, Louisiana joins Alabama as the only other state in the U.S. to use the controversial gas method on a person condemned to death.
Federal judge blocks Trump effort to ban transgender troops from military service
The decision by U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes blocks the Department of Defense from carrying through with a policy directive designed to remove transgender service members from the military.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sues Trump administration over canceled contract
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a government-backed overseas broadcaster, sued the Trump administration in an attempt to get it to release funds appropriated by Congress.
Alabama’s celebrity weatherman pleads for the National Weather Service
With the life-saving Weather Service in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump and chainsaw-wielding billionaire Elon Musk, weather forecasters like James Spann are speaking out to defend the agency that provides the backbone for their work.
