Former Hostage Comes Home to Cheering Crowds
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FT. COLLINS, Colo. — Thomas M. Sutherland arrived home Sunday to cheering crowds that never forgot the loquacious Scotsman while he was a hostage in Lebanon for 6 1/2 years.
Sutherland, 60, was greeted upon his arrival by about 500 people. Sky divers trailed long yellow ribbons, an American flag and a banner that read “Jump For Joy Tom’s Back.”
Friends presented Sutherland with a bouquet of yellow flowers as he arrived at Ft. Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport with his wife, Jean, and daughters Kit and Joan.
“We’re very, very happy to be here. Thank you for everything that you’ve done,” he said, standing with the snow-covered Rocky Mountains as a backdrop.
“To see the sunshine and fresh air, I can’t tell you how good it is. Words can hardly express how I feel about being here, honestly.”
After the airport welcome, the Sutherlands headed in a limousine for Ft. Collins, where thousands of the community’s 80,000 residents lined the streets and held “Welcome Home Tom” signs. Others gathered at Colorado State University. Six hot-air balloons hovered overhead.
At an emotional rally at the university’s Moby Gym, attended by an estimated 10,000 people, bagpipes heralded the return
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