DANSVILLE, N.Y. – 893 days. That’s how long Ryan Corbett of Livingston County was held prisoner by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Corbett returned to U.S. soil in January, and on Saturday a homecoming was held in his honor in his hometown of Dansville.

“People ask me now, how did you survive that? And all I can say was by God’s strength and it was by taking it a day at a time, sometimes an hour at a time,” said Corbett.

Corbett is an entrepreneur with Bloom Afghanistan – an organization focused on helping boost Afghanistan’s economy.

It’s during one of his visits to the country that he was first captured.

“In August 2022, on what was meant to be a short trip to visit my staff and teach a seminar, I was detained by the Taliban,” Corbett said.

“At first, they told me that there was an Islamic State threat against me, and they wanted to keep me safe. They told me that I was their guest and if I was a prisoner, I would know it because they have an underground cell for prisoners. Then from one moment to the next, they changed their demeanor completely, took my phone, frisked me down and threw me into that cell. For the next 29 months, I was held by them, while waiting for our government to work out a solution with my captors.”

Since returning to the U.S., Corbett says he’s learned what’s truly important to him.

“So many of you, friends both old and new, advocated, prayed, worked for my release. Congresswoman Tenney, so many others from both the Biden and Trump Administrations came together to make this possible. I’m just amazed and humbled by all of that,” Corbett said.

“My lovely wife worked with dogged determination from day one until 893 and when we said our vows, here in Dansville 21 years ago, we had no idea what, for better or for worse, could mean. And now we know.”

Of the over 220 people in attendance, almost no one is more excited than Corbett’s wife, Anna.

“[It’s] humbling that people come around us. I did not cook a single meal for like, a month. People, like strangers, were bringing us food,” said Anna Corbett.

Longtime friend Abi Miller, who traveled eight hours from Indiana, even painted a picture, showcasing the moment Ryan and his wife were reunited after more than two years.

“So I finished yesterday, and this was the moment where Anna and Ryan saw each other for the first time after two and a half years, and this was the plane that brought them in. This is the American flag in the background,” said Abi Miller.

“And I just think that Ryan is such an important citizen of America and a citizen of Dansville, that I really wanted to capture this moment where they were finally reunited and he can finally be back home on American soil where he belongs.”

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