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WASHINGTON - Looking healthy and alert in desert camouflage military fatigues, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun arrived back in the United States on Thursday as Navy investigators wait for their first interviews with the one-time captive.
Hassoun stepped confidently down the steps of a Marine Corps C-12 Huron twin-propeller plane with members of his Yellow Ribbon Team, which is guiding his repatriation. He exchanged brief greetings with military personnel who met him on the tarmac at the Marine base in Quantico, Va., and quickly boarded a red passenger van and smiled as he was driven to his quarters.
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Mentally he seems to be fine at the moment, said Maj. Tim Keefe, who spent time with Hassoun during his time at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and on the flight to the United States.
He's in good spirits. He's happy, kind of joking around a little bit. He's been smiling more. He's been getting some sleep, so those are all good things, Keefe said.
The Yellow Ribbon Team chose to relocate Hassoun to Quantico, just 36 miles south of Washington, because it offers easy access to services, said Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, spokesman for the II Marine Expeditionary Force, Hassoun's unit based in Camp LeJeune, N.C.
Hassoun will remain at Quantico until the repatriation process is complete and he is deemed fit to return to full duty, a process that could take weeks or even months, Lapan said.
The Marine Corps is fully committed to supporting the repatriation process in the interest of Corporal Hassoun's welfare and fitness for duty, he said.
Hassoun disappeared from his unit June 19 and was investigated by the military as a deserter until video aired showing him blindfolded with a sword brandished above his head. His apparent captors threatened to decapitate him unless the United States released prisoners it was holding.
Following an erroneous claim that he had been killed, Hassoun mysteriously turned up in Beirut, Lebanon, where he called the U.S. embassy to arrange to pick him up. Even before he turned up, some military officials wondered if his kidnapping was a hoax.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is conducting an inquiry into his whereabouts during his three-week absence and how he made it from where he was stationed outside Fallujah, Iraq, to Lebanon.
Hassoun spent his days in Germany, watching some television and attending a series of debriefings with his Yellow Ribbon Team. He began moving around the hospital more during his last few days there, said Keefe.
The team includes Lapan and Lt. Col. Sally Harvey, a clinical neuropsychologist who met Hassoun in Lebanon and has travelled with him since.
He's transitioning from captivity into normal life and he's also been the subject of a lot of news discussion, so you've got people with him who can just look out for him and look out for his best interest, Keefe said.
There are no immediate plans for his family to visit, although officials are working through the issue, Keefe said.