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The Hostage Rescue Attempt In Iran, April 24-25, 1980

HOSTAGES RECOUNT EVENTS

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Some personal accounts of the capture of the embassy.

American Hostages in Iran, 1979

From Tim Wells, editor. 444 Days: The Hostages Remember. San Diego, Calif.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. 36-41, 44, 54-56, 62-63, 68-69.

Victor Tomseth (chief political officer): That day [November 4] was a double anniversary. I think it was the anniversary of the day that Khomeini had gone off into exile in Turkey back in 1964, and also the first anniversary of a major riot in Tehran during which people had been killed at Tehran University. So there was a demonstration scheduled for that day. We had our staff meeting the first thing in the morning, and I remember the main debate was whether we should lower our flag to half-mast in recognition of the anniversary on which these three our four people had been killed at Tehran University. It was decided that we would not lower the flag. . . .

John Limbert (political officer): November 4 had been proclaimed Student Day, and there was going to be a march and rally at the University of Tehran. The university is in the western part of the city. The routes of march for people going to the rally from the east or northeast would lead in front of the embassy. It was quite normal for marchers to pass the embassy on their way to some kind of gathering at the university, and as they went by, to shout some anti-American slogans. That morning groups started going by, and occasionally we would hear their anti-American slogans. There was not anything unusual about this. . . .

Joe Hall (warrant officer, at the chancery): We had a radio in our office so we could hear what the marines and security officers were saying to one another. That way we could keep up with what the hell was going on. "Bulldog" was the code name for the security officer, Al Golancinski. Suddenly I heard on the radio, "Bulldog, someone's cut the chain on the gate and there are two or three Iranians inside." It was said in a very relaxed manner. . . .

John Graves (public affairs officer): I happened to be at the window of the press office where I could actually see the gate, the main gate. I don't know quite how it opened; normally there's a big chain around it. But all of a sudden the gates opened and the first flood of students came in. They were mostly women carrying signs like: "Don't be afraid. We just want to set in." Set, not sit. No sign of weapons or anything like that. It didn't look at all serious. . . .

John Limbert (political officer): I was down on the ground floor of the embassy near the marine station right at the front door. It must've been about 10:30, perhaps 10:40, when the students started coming over the wall. There were some closed-circuit television cameras around the embassy, and I could see it on the television monitor. We had very heavy iron doors at the south and main entrances, which were immediately shut. They were very heavy doors. They could resist almost anything short of a bazooka. I can't remember there being any panic. The marines clearly knew what they were doing. . . .

Lee Schatz (agricultural attache, at his office across the street from the embassy compound: When they entered the compound, they split and went off in two different directions. Which seemed odd. you'd think that if a crowd was hyped up and ready to . . . take the embassy, the normal impulse would have been for everyone to rush straight up to the chancery. But they took off in two different directions, with one group heading back toward the consulate. Instead of a mad rush at the chancery, it appeared that some people were stationed at strategic observation points, where they were close enough to holler from one person to the other. You know, someone would stop and stand by the corner of a building where he had a clear view of the courtyard or the motor pool. It had the appearance of something that was well planned. . . .


Sgt. William Quarles (marine security guard, at the Bijon Apartments): I was just trying to be cool. I said, "I can't believe this. I don't believe these little knuckleheads think they're going to take over the embassy." You know, I was really pissed. I kept saying, "What in the hell do they think they're doing? They can't do this. They think they're going to take over the American embassy with all these marines around?" I was really eager to go over there and kick somebody's ass. I really was. I just wanted to bang a few heads." . . .

Joe Hall (warrant officer, at the chancery): The Iranians got into the basement real quick. At the time, I was in the defense attache office on the main floor, and we were wondering what the hell to do with our classified stuff. We'd actually been pulling documents out of the files in order to destroy them, when the word came through that the militants had managed to get into the basement. Everybody was immediately ordered upstairs to the second floor. We thought, well shit, we can't carry our classified stuff with us. If the militants did get through, we'd meet them in the hallway with our hands full. So Colonel Schaefer said, "Let's lock it up." We put all the classified documents in the safes and spun the dials. . . .

Malcolm Kalp (economics officer, at the chancery): Gradually everybody filtered upstairs. We cleaned out the basement . . . and the first floor, and got everybody up there--the Americans as well as the Iranian workers. Everybody sat along the walls on either side of the hall. The marines came around and started giving out gas masks. . . .

The Iranians came up to the second floor and tried to burn the door down. Now how you burn down a steel door, I don't know. But they tried to burn it down. A couple of the marines got excited and started yelling, "They're burning the door! They're burning the door!" They kept feeling the back of it with their hands, and spraying with fire extinguishers. I felt the door and couldn't feel any heat, but figured if it made the marines happy to spray, let them spray. . . .

Col. Charles Scott (chief of the Defense Liaison Office, at the chancery): When the time came to surrender, everyone conducted themselves in an exemplary manner. There was a feeling of genuine fear among all of us, but there wasn't any panic. No one was yelling or screaming or falling apart. A couple of our Iranian employees were hysterical, but all of the Americans took it calmly, and did what they were supposed to do in order to avoid any unnecessary violence.


John Limbert (political officer, in the stairwell):The militants took me downstairs and out the front door. I was very relieved to get out of that gas and smoke. It was rainy and cold. It was good to be in the fresh air. I was feeling relieved to be alive. At that point, I remember thinking, being alive was a pretty good thing.

Bill Belk (communications officer, at the chancery): When we opened that door we were taken over immediately. The Iranians swarmed in. One guy looked at me and said, "Walk out the door." So I walked out the door. Two guys grabbed me, one on either side, put my hands behind my back, and tied my hands. They had a long nylon rope that they used to tie us up. After my hands were tied, this guy tried to cut the rope with a knife. The rope slipped and he gouged me, stabbed me in the back. I said, "Ouch!" And he said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." Which amazed me. They were much more gentle than I'd expected.

They blindfolded me, and I didn'tknow what to do. I'd never experienced a blindfold before.Ithought maybe they were going to take us out and shoot us. I just didn't know what to expect.

Click on the link to go to the original web site address for the article below.

Skeletons in the Closet

17 Years Ago This Week
By Sue Schuurman

On Jan. 20, 1981, Iranian militants released 52 American hostages held captive for 444 days at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Although no one was killed, the media and newly-elected President Reagan painted Iran as the latest "evil empire," a stigma that still sticks today. But do American conservatives, especially the Religious Right, realize just how much they have in common with the Iranian theocracy? Don't they want the United States to be a Christian nation, guided by biblical principles, often cloaked in the term "family values?" ...

"Hostages Reveal Iran Torture.

"The emancipated hostages told of beatings and other atrocities at the hands of the Iranian captors today as they telephoned their loved ones back home.

"One said ... he was told by Iranian interrogators ... that his mother had died. He didn't learn that she was still alive until the freed captives reached Germany this morning.

"As they began a stay of several days at a U.S. military hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, most of the 52 hostages talked with their families for the first time in 445 days. ...

"Col. Leland Holland, 53, security chief of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran ... 'spent a month in what he called the "dungeon" and said his captors were S.O.B.s,' said the colonel's mother. 'He said his house was ransacked and everything taken, including his watch and rings. They took all the furniture and clothes.'

"A spokesman for the family (of Duane 'Sam' Gillette) said: 'His treatment was at times disgusting. I think President Reagan was polite when he termed the Iranians barbarians. We know that his letters were covering up what the real situation was. There was no physical torture, but there was psychological pressure. The food wasn't good and the conditions were very poor.'

"And the family of Malcolm Kalp said ... 'He told us he was beaten by them and placed in solitary confinement because of his escape attempts.' He served from 150 to 170 days in solitary. ...

"Returnee David Roeder, 40, of Washington, D.C., said, 'I've never been so proud to be an American in all my life.' ...

"Outside the hospital ... the crowd ... broke into a chant of 'U.S.A., U.S.A.' Only 12 hours and nine minutes earlier, the two women and 50 men hostages flew out of Iran on an Algerian jet to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards' jeers of 'Down with America' and 'Down with Reagan.' ... "

Source: The Albuquerque Tribune; Jan. 21, 1981

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The following account is from this website:

http://content.fredericksburg.com/news/Local/Stafford/0114host.htm

 

Marine Maj. Steve Kirtley was one of 52 Americans taken hostage in Iran in 1979. Todayas the 20-year anniversary of his release approachesKIrtley is stationed at Quantico. Suzanne Carr / The Free LanceStar triangle 

 

Marine looks back 20 years after Iran hostage crisis


By PAMELA GOULD

The Free Lance-Star


IT WAS TWO IN THE MORNING in his fourth month of captivity when Iranian militants jolted 21-year-old Steve Kirtley and his fellow hostages from sleep.

Using automatic rifles as prods, they hustled the two women and 50 men into the hallway of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, forced them spread-eagle against a wall and then hastily applied blindfolds.

We could hear what was going on and we were smart enough to know what was happening, Kirtley vividly recalled more than two decades later.

Dozens of angry-sounding Iranians clamored around them.

And once they got us lined up, it got kind of quiet ... and one of the Iranians yelled something, some kind of command, and all of them started fiddling with their rifles like they were putting rounds in their chambers.

And then it got really quietI mean just deathly quietfor about three seconds.

In that moment, Kirtley had but one thought: If you shoot us, shoot me in the head so it doesnt hurt for long. 

But then, just as suddenly as their captors had rousted them, the armed men began taking the hostages inside again one by one, strip-searching them and rifling their belongings.

And then that was it, Kirtley said during a recent interview in his office on Quantico Marine Corps Base. They brought us back to the rooms and pushed us in there, and we were done.

For Kirtley, who today is a 42-year-old major living in North Stafford, that incident was one of a handful of terrifying moments amid 15 long months of drudgery.

And this Saturday, as the nation inaugurates its 43rd president and begins looking to its future, Kirtleys sightsif only for a momentwill be on the Inauguration Day two decades past.

That dayJan. 20, 1981spelled freedom for him and his 51 comrades after 444 days of unending tension.

The taking of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, shook Americas confidence in its place on the world stage and unveiled a new threat to world peacethe specter of terrorism.

But for Steve Kirtley and the other hostages, the impact was far more personal.

It was a period that proved Kirtleys mettle as a Marine and launched a distinguished career that has now spanned 23 years.

But it is one he acknowledges would be significantly more trying today.

I would have a completely different outlook on it now, he said. Im older, married and have three sonsthree young sons.

An inauspicious start

By the time Steve Kirtley entered elementary school, he had lost his mother to suicide, had been abandoned by his father and spent half his life in an orphanage.

At age 6, his aunt and maternal uncle adopted him, but life continued to confront him with challenges. His three older male cousins taunted him at home with malicious pranks and school proved to be a chore he spent most days avoiding.

By age 18, Kirtley was a high-school dropout working at a Pizza Hut in his hometown of Little Rock, Ark., and apparently headed nowhere.

But that quickly changed when a Vietnam War veteran wandered in one day and began telling him about the Marine Corps and his wartime service.

Within weeks, Kirtley had enlisted and was on his way to boot camp.

Two years later, when the Corps needed volunteers for its prestigious security-guard program, he seized the opportunity to see the world and pursue what he viewed as a career-enhancing move.

Its a different caliber of peopleof Marines, Kirtley said. Practically, if you sneeze wrong, theyll dump you from the program.

Kirtley was a lanky 6-foot, 3-inch corporal fresh out of Marine security-guard school at the Quantico base when he arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Aug. 8, 1979.

Eight months earlier, the Ayatollah Khomeini had risen to power after militant Islamic forces deposed Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi in a civil war.

The U.S.-backed shah, accused of growing rich as he oppressed his people during a 37-year reign, had fled the country. Although tensions appeared to have cooled some by summer, anti-American sentiment still simmered.

Kirtley knew the atmosphere was still tense in the Middle Eastern country when he volunteered for duty there, but was undaunted. He figured there might be a skirmish at worst.

I wanted to be where the action was, he recalled. You dont join the Marine Corps for the great benefits. You join the Marine Corps to be a Marine.

We want you to surrender

Cpl. Kirtleys first weeks on duty at the embassy were relatively calm. The only tension or animosity he experienced came when the pale-skinned blonde ventured onto city streets in his off hours.

That changed in October when President Jimmy Carter allowed the deposed shah into the United States for cancer treatment.

By Nov. 4, 1979, hundreds of thousands of protesters had been gathering in front of the U.S. Embassy off and on for weeks.

The day before the takeover, Kirtley said as many as 500,000 people thronged the six-lane thoroughfare in front of the embassy.

It was just a deafening sound of people chanting, he recalled.

Kirtley had gone off duty at midnight on Nov. 3, 1979, and was in the living quarters across from the embassy with one of his Marine roommates when the hand-held walkietalkie in his room crackled, indicating an emergency.

He threw on his uniform and they raced to the top of their eight-story building for a glimpse of the trouble.

There were Iranians all over the place, Kirtley said.

Soon, the protesters invaded the living quarters and began kicking down doors. Kirtley radioed back for instructions.

Lock the door and if they kick the door in, we want you to surrender, he was told.

Within 20 minutes, he was walking across to the compound, his hands clasped atop his head, a pistol pointing his way.

Initially, he took it in stride, figuring he and his fellow captives would be treated well enough and released before long.

I cant say I was really, really frightened, Kirtley said. I was just apprehensive.

I had plenty of opportunity later to be frightened.

Three times, Kirtley expected to die.

The first came on his initial day of captivity. He was blindfolded, bound at his wrists and marched in front of one of the 28-acre compounds brick buildings. He stood there as an angry crowd of Iranians jeered.

Then, after what seemed like an eternity, his captors walked him back indoors without explanation.

That was probably my good excuse for being cooperative, Kirtley said of his attitude thereafter.

The second threat of death was the 2 a.m. mock firing squad in February 1980.

The third came four months after a botched April 1980 rescue attempt by U.S. forces.

The hostages had been dispersed throughout the country and were in the process of being reunited. Kirtley and three other captives were being driven from the city of Isfahan, about eight hours southwest of Tehran, back to the capital when the van they were in flipped three times along a desert highway.

Kirtleys first thought was of death. His second was of freedom.

Neither came.

After several minutes of confusion, the captors got the situation under control and the journey continued.

Passing the time

A few weeks into their captivity, the Iranians allowed the hostages access to books seized when an American school in Tehran closed. But they still could not speak to one anothernot for another two months.

Then they were given games to keep them occupiedplaying cards, poker chips and pieces for chess and checkers.

Fresh air was harder to come by.

On average, the hostages got one hour in a small enclosed space once a month. At one point, they went four months without going outdoors.

That was tough for a long-legged Marine who hated sitting still. He began walking in circles in the room he shared with three to five men to keep from going stir crazy.

At points, I would get where I was very frantic about wanting to get out, Kirtley recalled. And just having some level of believing were never going to get out of here.

But he said those were the times the hostages would rally one anothers spirits.

There always seemed to be somebody there to bring you out of the funk, he said.

Sit-ups, push-ups, games and daydreaming helped relieve the stress, but the young man who turned 22 and earned another stripe while in captivity said the books from the old school are what made the difference.

I read a lot, he said. About the Jews going through the Holocaust and POWs in Vietnam.

And compared to some of that stuff, it wasnt bad for me.

Anger and illumination

When Kirtley came home, he basked in the countrys warm welcomea reception at the White House that included a handshake from newly-inaugurated President Reagan, a parade in his hometown and a greeting by former Arkansas governor and future President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary.

But simultaneously, he was dealing with angerat his captors and at the commander in chief he blamed for his long captivity.

It wasnt until the past year that Kirtley got a clearer understanding of the events transpiring on the home front.

Before watching a cable television program that looked back at the drama of the hostage crisis, Kirtley felt Carter hadnt done enough to gain the hostages release.

Afterward, he said, I realized we probably all came close a couple of times to being killed.

Over the years, sometimes in preparation for speaking to a group about his experiences, Kirtley spent time reading about Iran and its history. It has given him insight into the hostility Iranians harbor against the United States.

I heard their pitches from them [during captivity], I read their history and I understand, he said recently.

But that doesnt mean he condones their actions or is swayed by their viewonly that he appreciates their feelings.

Kirtley thinks both nations would benefit from normalized relations and hed like to see it come to pass.

The people over there are just as nice and friendly as anyone else, he said. The same kinds of things make them mad that do us.

He says theres just one obstacle to overcome.

Its just a problem of getting past the governments to the people.

Reminders give perspective

Kirtley neither dwells on his days as a hostage nor is haunted by his memories. But he does keep reminders on the walls of his fifth-floor office at the James Wesley Marsh Center on the Quantico base.

And it does surface on occasion.

Like when he hears someone talking about a book and he realizes it was one he read during his captivity.

Or when he looks at his sons and realizes that at ages 2, 4 and 9 they cannot appreciate the lessons hed like to share with themlike how much safer their daily lives are compared to the youngsters he used to watch running the streets of Tehran brandishing firearms.

Or just how good life is in this countrya country where even people on the poorer end of the economic spectrum often have televisions and cable.

But Kirtley isnt given to preaching and he isnt into trumpeting his achievements or wallowing in self-pity.

What he is, according to Col. Craig Grotzky, his supervisor on base, is someone who makes the most of a difficult situation.

Hes the type of individual that takes a glass thats half empty and makes it half full, Grotzky said.

To rise from being an orphan and high-school dropout to become a Marine officer with a masters degree in a technical field defies the odds, Grotzky said, expressing his admiration.

You look at a guy like Kirtley and theres no reason anybody should failor quit, he added.

When Kirtley arrived home from Iran, the Marine Corps gave him three options: immediate honorable discharge despite having a year left on his enlistment, his pick of military schools or posting to the duty station of his choice.

He chose to stick close to home and spent a year in Marine public affairs in Little Rock before taking a stint as a drill instructor. After that, he headed off to a government-paid college education, followed by Officer Candidate School.

Since then, he has been billeted around the country and served overseas in the Persian Gulf War.

And it was at Marine Headquarters that he met his wife, Maj. Catherine Payne.

Pictures of family dot his office today, sprinkled amid mementos of a less happy time. Like the framed copy of the Jan. 20, 1981, edition of the armed-forces newspaper Stars and Stripes hanging to the right of his desk.

On its front page is a headline declaring the hostages impending release encircled by photos of all 52 hostagestheir signatures added en route from Germany to the U.S. aboard an Air Force jet.

Or the photo beneath it taken during the hostages 10-year reunion as part of an article for Life magazine.

Or the Defense Department commendation sitting on his file cabinet that praises his bravery, self-discipline and leadership while in captivity.

But it is the framed, black-and-white picture Kirtley keeps on the wall to his left that he glances at most often.

In it, he and Sgt. Ladell Maples are being marched onto the embassy grounds as the hostage crisis unfolds.

It is the one Kirtley uses to keep perspectivefor himself and those he supervises as head of the technical-support branch for information systems for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

When day-to-day problems seem to be mounting, he looks at it and reminds himself: It has been worse.

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Kirtley practices kick-boxing with Mike Dalbis at the Larson Gym on the base. Kirtley says not being able to move around or go outside for long stretches at a time was one of the most difficult things about being held captive. Suzanne Carr / The Free LanceStar triangle

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Marine Sgt. Steve Kirtley is honored by President Reagan at a White House ceremony in January 1981, after he and other U.S. hostages in Iran were released. Despite the 444-day ordeal, Kirtley decided to stay in the Corps and is now a major stationed at Quantico.

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Kirtley keeps a photo (above) of himself and Sgt. Ladell Maples being taken captive as a reminder of the ordeal.

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This picture is of some patriotic Americans upset with what Iran was doing to our people in Tehran.

The next page will bring us to some background historical perspective, telling us the what's, the why's, and the who's, necessary to understand the events surrounding the Hostage Crises. Click on this picture of these patriotic Americans to proceed to the next page.