Jack McCarty received much media attention upon his return to the U.S. after being released as a hostage from TWA Flight 847 in 1985; which had been hijacked by the Shia Amal Militia on June 14, 1987. McCarty and his partner, Vic Amburgy, had been set to leave Athens for Rome as part of a long trip they had planned with much encouragement from one of Jack McCarty’s Shanti client, Jay. At that time, McCarty had been a chef at The Elephant’s Walk (now Harvey’s) in The Castro and been a Shanti emotional support volunteer for many years. Randy Shilt’s wrote an account of McCarty and Amburgy’s 17-day hostage ordeal in …And the Band Played On. According to Shilts, allegedly the local media restrained from reporting on McCarty and Amburgy’s relationship when covering the hijacking fearing that the outing of their gay identity would result in their death. Both curious and frustrating, the now stereotypical archetype of a Islamic terrorist so homophobic they’d kill any queer person on the spot exists alongside Jack’s account of having a slightly respectful, if it could be called that, relationship with his hijackers.
Jack’s experiences as a Shanti volunteer and the training was often highlighted not only for how he was able to maintain his dignity and sense of resolve during the experience, but also his ability to stay present with other hostages and in communicating with members of The Amal Militia. Jack noted that his experience with Shanti clients were key in his very involvement with the TWA Flight 847 incident. For one, his client Jay had encouraged Jack and Vic to take the trip together, emphasizing how short life could be or become (Jack would die four years later due to AIDS-it is not clear if he knew his status at the time of the incident). Once the hijacking began to play out Jack and Vic were separated from each other and Jack internalized the lessons he learned from his client young Scott Cleaver. Scott, who died at the age of 26, had a great impact on his volunteer who was nearly twice his age. This relationship and Scott’s strength at the end of his life kept Jack’s day to day extremity in perspective. Jack said in a Shanti Newsletter:
“My experience as a volunteer helped me to maintain a tremendous sense of dignity during the time I was a hostage. For seventeen days I was faced with a life-threatening environment. I reached for things that were there within my self. I found that there was a sense of self that was acceptable…that the inevitable was acceptable. That’s not to say I gave up. I’m talking about away of thinking and feeling that makes you feel very strong.
All of it a very surrealistic sense to it. A lot of “This can’t be happening to me” which I had heard during training, doing role plays or working with clients. There was a lot of making it okay.
It is no longer empathy and understanding from logic. It is now understanding from experience and our conversations now are so free…The associations are so easy to make.”
