American couple and baby rescued from Syria using secret roads

(NewsNation) — An American nonprofit run by veterans helped save an American couple and their 18-month-old daughter from Syria and returned them to the safety of the U.S.

Desiree Gomez, Mohamad Shokair and Grey Bull Rescue founder Bryan Stern joined "Elizabeth Vargas Reports" to discuss how the successful mission occurred.

Gomez and Stern said their first week in the Arab nation was "pure happiness" as they visited family for the first time in six years. Then, the situation turned "really, really bad," according to Gomez.

On Wednesday, the State Department issued a level 4 alert, urging Americans not to travel to Syria.

Gomez's family reached out to Grey Bull Rescue, which has previously helped Americans return home from dangerous parts of the world, for their assistance.

"This was an extremely, extremely dangerous ... operation where people were killed, people were hurt in doing it frankly ... within arm's reach of the operation," Stern told NewsNation.

Passwords, codes and secret roads were used to help get Gomez, Shokair and their daughter out of Syria.

"Who you can trust is hard. There are spies and infiltrators everywhere. People eavesdrop on cellphones everywhere," Stern explained.

"We're not war zone Uber... if you mess up, this family will die. So we have to make sure that all operational security precautions are taken, all tradecraft precautions are employed, and we have to make sure ... that that we will succeed, because failure is catastrophic," he added.

Gomez described the experience as "surreal," and they had to put their trust in Stern and Grey Bull, which involved riding in multiple cars with multiple strangers.