European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 9, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 20 the stars and stripes february in continued from Page 19 our windows and Here we come and get help put a Hole in the Wall so we can As it became Clear the trouble was with the hostages dared to hint at Bias in discussing the new War with their Sickmann we would sit there and have discussions about How they were getting their ass and they would say they were just pre paring for an Michael the embassy political could not resist defining a lesson for his contending that the iranians preoccupation with holding the hos tages had leu them vulnerable to outside i took great Joy in telling them All the people who had been killed had been killed because of their stupidity in taking the american he that if the american government had relations with iraq1 would never have attacked because they would have been from their the americans could sense the Sud Den shift of iranian Richard a for Mer artillery heard the iraqi bombs land in Teh ran and overheard guards discussing he saw increasing evidence of american sanctions against Tehran As food and kerosene became limited and Long blackout periods were As much to save it seemed to As to wage it was he said of the american coun i was sure of such stirrings of fresh anticipation fed into the final month of the presidential elections going on Back an event marked Well by both hostages and the iranians began predicting president Carters defeat and saying it would mean Freedom for the they would come in and Carter has to do something before the election to get us out that would make him look Good in Sickmann annoyed at the notion that Domestic politics might in Trude into a life Eddeath he said he was hoping instead that the president would come Over and Clow the country each Day of the far off campaigning was echoed in the jail cells of Iran by some of the same questions about Carters dilemma that fascinated Politi Cal analysts Back in we kept telling them that he didst have to do any Sickmann and they of it will be for he will do for the the Only certainty of such talk was that they had better steel themselves for the likelihood of another siege of Hope and disappointment coinciding with the first anniversary of their soon after the vote was cast in the United guards in Iran gleefully appeared to announce the defeat of the great satan Moorhead Kennedy recalled that his main reaction had been a new sort of that the change in administrations in Washington might re quire restarting the entire negotiating process with the by this at the beginning of their second year of the sporadic talk by some hostages of a breakout attempt began to interest such an earlier sep tic As army Charles the embassy military he did not think an escape could but he indulged the talk nevertheless because he decided he could not wait he and other hos tages bean to discuss an attempt at breaking out some time after the beginning of Ronald reagans adm Nistra fear was not a Factor in such talk after the experience of the mock firing he you can just get so you get he and once you get angry it sustains you through Many sorts of in incidents of resistance were re counted with Pride by the repatriated when they attempted to give me the Story about How religious they i would Tell them they were a Bunch of Metrinko recalling that some of his worst confinement was suffered in the final months be cause of his resistant i was being punished by the guards for my inability to establish apolite he telling of a final stretch of 17 Days straight in a special punishment cell with Foft bedding or i keeping warm by constantly jogging in the he there want enough room to As Christmas the hostages suddenly were gathered from their different Points of jail like confine ment and put in comfortable surroundings they consid ered More reminiscent of the Shah it was As if they were being reconditioned for even As the Carter administration worked furiously to end the or again the captives guarded against certain Conlu for their second Christmas in some of the hostages boycotted the Church service and rejected their sailors gift of i refused at that Point to be used for propaganda purposes any Kennedy re calling the final three week period of hunkering Down amid endless rumours of approaching at the foreign Bruce Victor Tomseth and Michael Howland had been treated with some deference All but on things began to militants came for them with ropes and Pillowcase howl and May have helped put off the Day of reckoning by kicking a militant Leader in the they but not before another iranian put a gun to Laingen head and said Well blow your brains out if he does that a More determined band returned on 3 and took the three off to a local where they spent the remain Der of their we were each put into solitary confinement and Given a taste of the students islamic said Laingen found a pile of toothpicks on the floor and speculated that they might have been used to torture there was no Effort to physically abuse Tomseth there was not even an he seemed to suggest that we were in the last act of this on a familiar figure from the opening weeks of Mary the reap with her was a Man who instructed some of the hostages that candidates for Freedom were about to go on television the implication was Clear that kind comments from the americans would hasten their i Felt in not going to help this Marine James Lopez in not going to say anything just to get out he did not we figured it was just another Dogan Pony show to get the interview from to build up americas Hopes and dash them Gregory on the other decided Freedom depended on the in which he said he had not been mistreated by the i was not he you either do it or youre not going to be lets say we were under master Regis said he had told the iranian television i have nothing to say to you they coaxed him to say the treatment is the food is but he continued to say nothing and even he he was taken aside for special they physically abused he they hit me in the face and told me i was going Back into that room to make a i told them i had nothing to say to they called him obscene he and they Rodney Sickmann messages in threw me the rumours of Freedom heightened about 5 on 19 when Navy commander Don Sharer was told he was a candidate for he recalled replying i Haven believed you the last 10 Why should i Start believing you now youre going to be talking to 300 the iranian As if Ever conscious of the Media aspects of the Robert Blucker said that by this after months of forced moves All around the band of hostages had bags of glasses and other Handy we were like the vagabonds who live on the Side walks of new he describing his unsuccessful demand to take two bag loads with him to he got out with nothing much beyond a souvenir and he did not fully believe the promised Freedom that night until one of the people involved in final medical checks told were thei the career in were heartened at the sight of Neutral mediators in their Morefield finally believed Freedom was at hand when i saw the my impression was that they were True professionals and hard As he at the height of the final confusion and an iranian appeared with a Clear message As remembered by Sharer in an its the hostages were everybody going there want any Kennedy we just did they were stacked like cordwood in buses and rushed out to the waiting they were hurried through what some took to be a Token Gauntlet of final the words sounding almost like a Sticks sandstones Jingle to some of the americas the americans heard in the blur and Din of bad chimed in right with bad Sharer recounting his final Hustle to hurried Kathryn Koob took a last glance at Iran and the in sure there were some among them who thought we should never have gone she but i think that for most of them they were pretty glad to see us inside the the some still doubting Freedom was in the shouted Greet Ings after 14 months of when we heard the plane engines kicking in we knew we were going said i got inside that Sharer beaming at the and some of the marines were already in i love those marines and i started giving College yells and cheers like i was on a football Field and scoring a and we were Happy from then visualizing All the dimensions of their captive would not yield to the moment until the algerians turned the pilots conversation onto the Cabin speakers and let the control Tower note the precise instant that the dubbed Freedom was passing from iranian airspace and Captivity to it brought tears to the Duane Gillette it was the the the Walls Between them quickly began piecing together their common filling in particularly the tantalizing ones of daily everybody was asking Sickmann said of that flight from wed recognize everybody voices but we would ask you what were you Guys playing that night when i heard All that Racket the source of the Racket of rolled the counted the oohs and it turned was and that strange game of flopping sounds it was hos Tage played with rolled up socks tossed to Ward a cardboard As the americans returned and dispersed across the crowds of compatriots seemed to be waiting almost enviously to hear of the discoveries made by the battered Mission from i found out i was not afraid of being Metrinko told the people Back Home in of other but not of and of his country i discovered i love it More than i am surprised and elated at the America that weve come Home Scott declared in coming its not the same America that i left 17 months its a new America and i think no greater gift could be Given to a professional Soldier by his country than the gift of Unity that i have seen since Ive been Back in Ameri the former hostages groped to describe the elation of fresh comparing it to an almost organic the feeling of said Jerry that you dont know what that is till youve come out and you Are it changes your insides and you Are alive