Hostage Held in Iraq Is Former Marine

Ronald Schulz was the captain of his high school cross country team and a four-year letter winner who won an award for practicing on 77 consecutive days, said Russ Schmeichel, who was his coach at Jamestown High School.

Family and friends said Schulz, 40, is the blond, Western-looking man sitting with his hands tied behind his back in a video broadcast Tuesday by the Arab television network Al-Jazeera. The video, bearing the logo of the insurgent Islamic Army, claimed insurgents had kidnapped a U.S. security consultant.

Schulz served in the Marine Corps from 1984 to 1991, his brother said, and after his discharge he moved to the Anchorage, Alaska, suburb of Eagle River. "He came up here alone, and bought a big house," and hung a large U.S. Marine Corps banner in the front window, family friend Bonny Stark said.

She described Schulz as "the ultimate Boy Scout" but wondered why anyone would take him hostage. "He doesn't know any military secrets," she said.

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