Douglas Wood (engineer)
Douglas Wood (born 30 June 1941), is an Australian construction engineer who had worked with the American military, and was held hostage in Iraq for six weeks between May and June 2005, before being rescued.
Early life
Wood was born in Whyalla, South Australia in 1941. He moved to Geelong where he attended the Geelong College and the Gordon Institute of TAFE, graduating as a mechanical engineer. In 1973 he left Australia to work in the United States, moving to Alamo, California, where he lived with his American wife and daughter, and employed by construction company Bechtel Corporation for 25 years. He later formed his own company and moved from his Californian home to Iraq. His work involved project management, and building nuclear plants; including the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating station in Arizona.
Kidnapping
In 2005, 63-year-old Australian engineer Douglas Wood was kidnapped along with two Iraqi business associates and forced into a cell, while at a home in Baghdad, Iraq while believing he was organising a business deal. On 2 May 2005, Arabic television network al-Jazeera broadcast footage of Wood being held by armed captors, identified as the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq. Wood is shown pleading for his life, and urges Australia and the United States to withdraw their troops from the country.