European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 9, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Doily Magazine the 444 Days editors note this is the conclusion of the american hostages own Story of their 444 Days of Captivity in new York times seven iranians wielding automatic rifles and wearing White fatigues and combat boots burst in on 21 hostages sleeping in the mushroom and herded them together against a they told us not to not to said Paul of the air who had gone to Tehran to advise the iranian air one of the guards barked out an a round was chambered in each he barked out another i could hear the safety catch go he barked another order about is seconds later and a round hit the it was ejected and fell to the i thought i was dead As the last order was barked i thought it was to i do not speak Farsi and i thought he had said to Gary the administrative later re called thinking As he waited for the bullets to tear into i sure Hope they hit me in the head and not the so i go the military Liaison was certain he heard someone cry out in get my Knees were said the Veteran of two combat Tours in i thought things had deteriorated so badly that they were just going to get rid of the men in White masks had put the hostages against the Wall in two Queen when they moved the first group they had every body lie he commander youre going to shoot me standing not lying he refused to lie and they were All stand ing up when i came when we were All in the room against the Queen there was dead then i heard the metallic clicking of the Locking the removing the i dont know it was just this harsh metallic and i really thought that was i just stood i knew it was my last i said the lords prayer and tried to give myself the last a because i was sure that we had just breathed our no one said he no one just pure Queen began having trouble holding one of his arms High in the air As he and the others had been the multiple sclerosis had started to hit me by then and i  keep my Arm and so it started to he at this time they relaxed the weapons a Little one of the militants realized the problem i so the Guy came up and slapped my Arm lie we were taken individually into a Small room and stripped to our while this was going another group went into our Little rooms and Tore them then we were taken Back individually to our in the next few More of the hostages were terrorized by the men in White Kennedy and some of the others sharing us base ment room at the embassy were preparing for bed late one he when two of the masked men charged in the acronym for the Shah brutal secret police organization that had been triumphantly dismantled by the the hostages were hauled out of their rooms and forced to strip to their undershirts in the cold night other iranians were ransacking their clothing and personal the Sharp Clack of Rifle bolts resounded in the the masked men chambered rounds into their Wear Bruce Laingen speaking on behalf of freed hostages at White House up Kennedy they tweaked our elastic bands on our shorts As they walked Back and Forth behind they poked their cold guns into our death seemed Kennedy said he but otherwise managed to control when he and his Frederick realized there would be no Kennedy they jumped for before the men were returned to their their belts were taken Kennedy and they found that their razors had been the hostages would refer to that night of terror As the panty another Sickmann and some of the others were blindfolded by men in White masks and marched Down a one at a Sickmann the masked men took the hostages into a room and told them to strip Down to their then their blindfolds were we just had our face against the the sergeant he told us not to so Here we weve got our eyes myself and the other sitting shaking like a Leaf against the you hear these rifles we thought we were toners in Sickmann and some of the others had been shown he of people who were killed lying on the ground with their Heads blown All these images started you know they kept coming into my he and the rifles being cocked and stuff like it was i thought i was going to be the same one of the masked men started searching private parts of your Sickmann he and others were told to get a week he there was a similar on March Needham he and some others again stood before a firing squad that did not that the gunmen did not Crank ammunition into their he Blucker was one of the few lined he said i didst think they shoot us in that in the Blucker the iranians found in Cash on they had known about it and had told him previously that they were not thieves and did not want his that he they kept Scott said that after he experienced one of the mock executions his fear of being killed you can just get so he you get angry and once you get angry it sustains you through Many sorts of i refused to think about death after the Midnight raids and the firing squads constituted probably the most concentrated punishment the hostages endured after the first Days of their and Many of them apparently shared that but the treatment varied hostages suspected of being intelligence operatives and those few who tried to escape had a hard at least to some the behaviour of the their personalities and the personalities of the captors who confronted them figured in their but not two of the William who at 6 feet 9 inches towered Over the and were determinedly and the iranians stayed at a respectful we complained about the hotel Keough that the bathroom was dirty and when the Ayatollah comes around ill Tell him How dirty this place february or Send in your sister to clean Keough said he was never physically threatened be cause i made it obvious Early on that this was not the thing to when a Man would open a door of the cell and hand out Keough i would demand More bread or they would Back away immediately and bread is or oranges is and my Large foot would be in the door and the door somehow  close until such time As we got bread and there was a lot of testing going As Keough birthday he teased the Cap tors for six saying he was expecting a when the Day came on the guards delivered a after Keough and the others had finished the he he turned to the guards and wheres the ice Cream toward the end of the Blucker said of his i had them so scared they were afraid to come into my i  let them in with their shoes on because they tracked in too much i yelled at them or i snarled at you could get to them by bitching at they told youre like an old you do do that didst upset i told them they needed an old woman to Tell them what to at one Blucker one of the captors was almost pleading with me to go before the Blucker when he the Young Man youre so on the evening the hostages were leaving they were told they could pack one Small i told them i was going to take two Blucker they didst they left them All there Malcolm who had been accused of being an agent for the Central intelligence tried Many times to after yet another attempt Kennedy they put him in a room and welded his windows perhaps As draining Over the Long run As the cold Rifle barrel in the Back was the daily worry of being Acci dentally Many of the Young the former hostages were As awkward with their automatic rifles and sub machine guns As a Ballerina on a when we were taken said Michael Metri the embassy political there were 20 or 30 guards who kept their g3s and their uzis pointing at i always thought it would be funny if one of them were to go they would have a massive blood killing each other because they were also pointing at each those Guys were said i was afraid they make a one of the Marine found it slightly nerve racking because we had All these Little kids running around with they were they had no weapons training and there walking around playing John Wayne and Audie Murphy and what have in Kennedy group was moved out of the embassy basement to an upstairs room that had a few and was Given a stove on which to heat the food that sometimes had been arriving cold from a command Kitchen somewhere Kennedy we ate by we were living the Good toward the end of the conditions continued on pages 1415 the stars and stripes Page 13