The Washington Post reports that Jill Carroll, the journalist held hostage in Iraq for three months in 2006, is making a dramatic career change -- leaving the Christian Science Monitor to become a Fairfax County firefighter and EMT. Yesterday she began five months of training for her new job, the Boston Globe first reported.

Why the switch? Carroll, 30, who mostly avoided the spotlight after her release, did not respond to messages, and her former editors did not return calls. But this kind of mid-career shift is not unusual for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. "We get all sorts of folks -- people from the military, legal assistants, lawyers, management analysts -- who become emergency responders," spokesman Dan Schmidt told the Post. "It's a career unlike any other."

Related Links

• Carroll recalls end of kidnap ordeal
• Wikipedia on Jill Carroll
• Christian Science Monitor Carroll Update Blog
• Hostage: The Jill Carroll Story