European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 9, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Continued from Page 13 for some of the Blucker and his Roommate at the Robert were moved to an upstairs room with a a two leather chairs and a pair of they also had the Blucker of asking for Tea and you might not get but you could ask for a Man who implied that he represented the govern but who Blucker said he later discovered was associated with the red Crescent the islamic equiv Alent of the red dropped in on the two hostages to assure us that things were going to be i thought at Blucker that perhaps the government was taking control of the there were no serious confrontations at that they were doing their Best to be people who were usually very solemn put on sort of Frozen As february blended into the hostages with Kennedy were allowed to make Telephone Calls but not before one of the iranians had nettled them a bit by who will be the first to give up his turn to Call to his Friend they All deferred to one Kupke was finally chosen by the guards to go Kennedy saw this As another ethnic act on the part of the Kupke is an american Kennedy said his Call went through on March 22 at 4 he talked about eight minutes to his who had taken a leading role among the hos tages he had placed the Call at that hour because i figured that would guarantee that my one Chance to phone the states would result in talking to we had a very Nice in mid March Blucker said he asked the chief terrorist in charge for a nearby private room with a sunny he said he was told that a Cia agent was being housed but that a change could be i assumed that having been unable to get anything out of he was trying to bribe me with Blucker so i went into that Nice Little room by sunbathe every Day for a few i was Able to throw Down the window from the top and finally have perfect fresh that brought on a million of for a my face looked like a Battle but i left it open and i never paid i never did a thing for i never wrote a letter for the arrival of april brought Spring and mounting Hope to the imprisoned Spring was in the recalled Moorhead they began taking pictures of As though gathering souvenirs before it was All the red Cross came and checked on everything seemed to be coming up a Swiss government air plane was on a Zurich runway on april ready to Fly doctors to Tehran to prepare for the imminent release of the according to a reconstruction of the hostage negotiations by Abc news world news cots had been brought to the iranian foreign ministry for the hostages to rest on before they left for the the television program but it said that the talks collapsed when Ayatollah Khomeini insisted that the Issue should be decided by the iranian the hostages knew nothing about that of nor did they know about the plans for the Ameri can military Rescue Mission that were also under Way that on april the relative peace was Shat All of a sudden theres running up and Down the said James theres vans be ing backed the door kicks and they Tell you will be leaving they were very they were very which made us nervous because these clowns were running around with automatic Wear fingers on the locked and something had gone he we didst known it was not until much later that Lopez and his fellow hostages Learned that the upheaval on april 25 had been caused by the abortive Rescue Mission that ended with eight americans dead in a conflagration on the Salt Flats of the iranian that evening some of the hostages held in the embassy had just finished eating a dinner of Chili found in the embassy commissary when their captors announced that the americans should pack Rodney Sickmann he said the captors had told them to use the bathroom because it Woula be 10 hours before they had another they blindfolded us and took us Down to a Van they had he we got in and they hand cuffed with Sickmann were a fellow Marine ser William and Jerry a californian who said he was in Iran on i dont know How Many cars were with said sick but we drove from about that night till about 7 Oclock the next the roads we were they Felt like they were cow we were bouncing up hitting the top of the Van with our you cant he went you could lean on somebody else but then hed and every body would have to move because you were handcuffed we finally got to Isfahan that we didst know this until about a month when they told us where we other hostages experienced similarly uncomfortable Moorhead Kennedy remembers hearing a lot of noise outside on the night of april we were told to he we were blindfolded again and taken outside into the from under the Blindfold we could see that our gear was being piled we thought that maybe the Shah was that maybe it was All Kennedy Hopes expired when he heard the sound of Handcuffs he was driven off into the certain Only that the upward tilt of the dark ened Van meant that he was being taken to the Hills outside Robert the embassy economics was put in a Van with Charles Donald of the a and Duane the Navy Petty we didst know where we were Blucker re we went through a series of go to shake anybody that might be following we were handcuffed to the vehicle and to each we went about 10 hours without a rest we were shouting at them to Stop so we could relieve Blucker but they  allow even when they stopped to Blucker and his fellow hostages were finally dropped off in a City that they later Learned was in the Northwest Corner of for the two Elizabeth Ann Swift and Kathryn who were brought together in the embassy in March and stayed together for the rest of their the Day of the raid brought certain signs that something unusual had we could hear All the movement and shuffling up and Down the Koob we knew peo ple were being moved from their current we didst know Why or where or their treatment changed an embassy Cook who had been preparing their main meals left and the student guards started doing the the three americans at the iranian foreign min Bruce Victor Tomseth and Michael also lost privileges after the the iranians took away their table Tennis Sickmann knew that he was not going to stay Long in his new he they were buying us bringing us Little hot dog and we knew this  last because they hated to spend Money on he Back at the they just took everything out of the he was in a few he was moved to the old consulate in by the first week in he he had been taken Back to where he spent three Days in the to after they got Home and had time to think about the Rescue some hostages wondered if it would have i was never sure what i Felt about it because i want there to make the said Donald the army thank god for the said there was a certain risk and a certain number of the hostages might not make it and i just Felt from my location in the embassy at the i might not be one of those who made it i was on the second there was no escape alter the Rescue moves were some of the hostages believe this was a tactic to upset them Sharer described what a guard would come into the he pack your the guard would Why do we have to pack our stuff just pack your Are we going Home just pack your then All through your mind it would go there going to take us out and shoot scattered about the teased by a scrap of in formation a scrap the hostages spent the Middle months of 1980 trying to Cope with the reality of a life without of a tedious imprisonment that showed no signs of and of allot frequent reminders of their precarious and hazardous Kennedy told through an open window in the Teh ran he could hear the gasps and screams of iranian prisoners being beaten and the outside world knew of events that had enormous potential importance for the hostages the release of Richard Queen on july the death of the former Shah on july 27 in the announcement by Ayatollah Khomeini on 12 of terms for the release of the but for after the disruption and dispersion following the failed Rescue one dreary Day of Captivity was much like amid their constant there would be a touch of the there for Koobs Telephone on the Day of the embassy she had kept a Telephone line open for hours Between her office in the Iran Ameri can society and the state department in sometime after when she and Swift became there was a Knock on the an iranian guard entered and did you make a phone Call to the United states 4 and i she recalled he then you will take your Check Book and you will write a Check for Tomans about wait a she there Are two prob i dont have a Check Book and i dont have an iranian Bank account number that want my phone the guard told her they would find her account and take the Money from i told him to please bring me what was she but i never saw him or the for the most there was not much to laugh about the hostages coped in varied i determined to live As normally As said i made up my mind i would keep myself and my things clean and that id keep myself As present Able As sort of like the British dressing for Din and he he would sweep his room until not a Grain of dirt he would scrub his toilet so clean that his guards started using moved to a new he would immediately Post family pictures and begin scrubbing William the schoolmaster from new eng treated his captors like recalcitrant using his height of 6 feet 9 inches to intimidate once we got Over the initial pushing we established Early on that this was not the thing to he he advised some of his fellow hostages How to i spent quite up Hometown folks greeting Frederick Kupke in on return from Robert Blucker rebuffed i bit of time instructing people on certain things they should know How to push the explaining to them that iranian students understand that we should be training the that we should be Cap Turing the students rather than having them capture Lopez found that Day today life was pretty much but he enlivened it for his fellow captives by sketching cartoons said Richard became a tremendous morale some of them were just he at the sketches were passed around Surrepta then the captors who presumably did not understand some of the nuances permitted them to be posted on a Wall near where hostages would be taken to watch propaganda films on Michael who worked in the embassy Polit ical remembers feeling extremely Good when he saw one Lopez sketch depicting a Mullah with a Belfry in the background and bats flying around the artist signed political prisoner being illegally detained by the iranian Morefield laughed at one drawn for his 51st birthday on it showed an old doddering captive flanked by two equally old doddering1 he Many of the recollections of this Middle period of their Captivity were of the fussy Domestic details with which they filled their Koob and Swift recalled a regular they would get up Between 8 and 10 they would visit the Bath Wash their Brush their then their captors would bring which was bread with Jam or sometimes then they would read Between noon and 1 Swift would the women would eat Wash the read some Koob would do some at they would exercise for 45 eat after evening devotions they would do what Koob called junk Reading pulp at they would exercise for another 45 running figure eights or circles around their said Gregory Persinger of the marines i would Wake up at 10 in the walk an exercise for close to two and a half doing setups to begin pushups and regular after i would sit up and read a couple of hours until the food came for then More More More Morefield said that he had been overweight 210 pounds when he was he touching his simple Little things like when his Captivity then built by the time the Long months to 50 repetitions or off Thelwall pushups and numerous squat jumps and setups and an hours jogging in his he weighed 178 when he reached he and if in this might have have added 10 years to my Sickmann said he walked about three Miles a Back and Forth across the touch the go Back and touch the some of the hostages told of attempts to none As Early As William who worked in the embassy communications wriggled free from sheets that bound his Cut through a window screen and slipped out onto the embassy the com Pound was brightly lighted and he tried to masquerade As one of the but he was shot seized and put in solitary confinement for 10 the next Swift asked a guard about the we shot a the guard told it was not until the air plane ride Home that she found out what had on that same the commotion stirred by the capture of Belk had alerted guards to the first of three escape attempts by Malcolm he tried he in May and again in Steven a general services told of an escape attempt in january some of the marines said that if they were not freed by time they to let the new president secure their they had planned an escape even though they realized it probably would not i dont want to sound John said but it want going to be a it was going to be a Kamikaze John another said the attempt would have involved about half a dozen using handmade wed mixed detergent and Ker razor Blades and pins and things of that he did he think it would have worked Mckeel i doubt that i could have gotten out of the country said Joseph the army warrant but it had gotten to the Point where i was seriously thinking about in the opinion of John the embassy 53 year old Public affairs the attempted escapes were not serious but rather appeared to be part of the need of some hostages to offer there were Many such attempts most he people knew Damn Well they we rent going any it was a it had to do with the military notion that somehow they had an obligation to give their rank and serial number and escape if they possibly and harass the and with that kind of men they did All kinds of what i would Call Idle Ges there were at least two apparent suicide at according to Graves and Frederick both refused to disclose the identities of those who tried to kill a third Steven Kirtsey of the said he bad witnessed one of the by a he declined to identify the Roommate or to say what had happened other than that guards had called an in a Little familiar with said when asked about reports of two suicide but i respect those Guys privacy and dont want to talk about the its i know it for a said but i wont go into details of How i know he said one involved a wrist slashing in february in not sure just what he was trying to do at that Graves the other the Man fully intended to kill him he he declined to say after the suicide the captors took away All of the hostages belts and and replaced drink ing glasses and plates with both the suicide and escape attempts presented Deli Cate problems for the iranian one of the told us Point Blank what their problem Graves they  shoot we were their Stock in and they  do us much we were gradually learning of course at that Point we didst the imams he went were specific that our health had to be they worked very hard at they were but they certainly worked at so they had quite a problem in keeping us under and according to they thought they had to intimidate had to show us who was the earlier mock executions and other cruelties inflicted on the hostages thus May have been part of this Tacti Cal intimidation Effort at controlling hostages whom the captors were under strict orders not to there were at least two other reasons for the harsh treatment some Graves there were a few that were treated much worse than the others because there was Good reason for the students to think they were Cia or spies or something he but Many had a psychological need to bring trouble on As the Days dragged the hostages became More resourceful in frustrating their captors efforts to prevent them from communicating with one we had the Pony express going through the said we would leave notes in the toilet paper under the in the behind the under a Loose we snatched a thumb tack off a Wall one time and we were sticking them underneath a Little end table they had in the and we had a Telegraph knocking through the and we also had the system where when you knocked on the door and talked to one of the you talked loud enough so that everyone in the hallway could hear you and you used Little acronyms and jargon the iranians would half understand but everyone else would catch some of the marines made up a code of animal Gallegos said they would bark or oink in a Pat Tern to told a Sickmann said one of the books the hostages were allowed to read contained instructions for a tapping in which letters were arranged in a horizontal Grid so that 11 was the letter 12 the letter and they would use that to communicate Between messages from outside were Welcome but letters i wrote were thrown away and letters they received for me were thrown said Duane the naval Petty but there was often mail from americans who simply wanted to let the hos tages know their country was thinking of and Gil Lette remembered with affection a letter he had gotten from a child in new there was Tom he he is in fourth but he came out and said i think we ought to bomb these bomb was mis bastards was it brought tears to my eyes it was so the iranians tried to keep the hostages ignorant of world especially those relating to the hostage on rare the hos tages were Given copies of the news crudely censored with Many pages torn but sometimes the censors would forget to Cut out the table of contents from a some of the hostages Learned of the Shah death that hints of the failed Rescue Mission reached the hostages at the various Sites to which they had been the first word came about six weeks after the Mission when one of the hostages got a letter from a one of the thousands of messages from americans who wrote to the were sorry the Rescue it we Hope they try it the women got a censored copy of time or Newsweek and the article about the raid that had been torn out continued on Page 19 Page 14 the stars and stripes february the stars and stripes Page 15