All language subtitles for How It Really Happened s08e10 Iran Hostages.eng

[audio logo]

[chanting]

DON COOKE: Emotions were
running extremely high,

but I felt pretty
secure in the embassy.

BARRY ROSEN: I thought
we were being protected.

MARK LIJEK: But then, we
could hear them on the roof.

CORA AMBURN-LIJEK:
Someone was trying

to come in through the window.
MARK LIJEK: And we had to hide.

ROCKY SICKMANN: We were
trying to buy time,

with the expectation that
we would get to leave,

and unfortunately, it
didn't turn out that way.

They take us from the room,
and they blindfold us.

STEVE KIRTLEY: They
could do whatever they

wanted to with us at any time.

[chanting]

[theme music playing]

Hello, and welcome to
How It Really Happened.

I'm Jesse L. Martin.

Sometimes, it seems like
the world is on fire.

That terror is the
new norm, and hostage

taking, bargaining for human
life, is all too common.

But what happens
to these hostages

while they're in captivity?

Are they treated humanely?

Are they tortured?

Or do they try to escape?

When Iranian students stormed
the US Embassy in Tehran

in November of 1979, they
took the embassy staff hostage

and held them for 444 days.

Only a handful
managed to escape,

but they were trapped
in Iran until the CIA

came up with a daring
plan to bring them home.

The top secret mission was
the subject of the Academy

Award-winning film Argo.

Here's how it really happened.

It was about mid-morning.

Two of our three local
employees had decided

to go buy some cookies
as a snack for everybody,

and all of a sudden,
the two came back.

They were out of breath.

They were visibly upset.

Something was wrong.

There was a march in
front of our embassy,

the American Embassy.

Thousands of people,
and the demonstration

got greater and greater
as time went by.

I could hear
the demonstrating,

getting closer and closer
and louder and louder.

And here are these people are
chanting, death to America.

And all of a sudden,
they've gotten in.

They're coming over the walls.

They're coming over the walls.

The place was just
overrun with people.

We were over in
the Marine house,

and they came in and
started kicking doors down.

And we could see him taking
other State Department

and defense attache
people out and lead

them across the compound.

You don't know what's going on.

You don't know if you're ever
going to get out of there.

My adrenaline was gone.

People were pounding
on the door,

and I'm putting
rounds into my pistol.

And then, all of a
sudden, they start

bringing people to the
door and saying, hey,

they got a gun to my head.

If you don't open the door,
they're going to kill me.

We called the
State Department.

What do you want us to do?

They actually told us, make
them kick the door down.

And then you just--

I want you to surrender.

So that's what we did.

That morning, we had the
chance to pull the trigger,

but we were told to stand down.

All it would have taken is
one word from those in charge.

And all they would have
had to do was say, fight.

And every Marine there, we'd
all have fought to the death.

We're taken hostage.

Marines were the first ones
out, arms behind your back,

and blindfold you and
tie your hands up.

And I was being led
across the embassy compound.

People running up
to me, shouting,

death to America, shaking their
fist at me, spitting at me.

I was taken from there into
one of these little houses.

There were probably 20
other hostages in there,

and my feet were tied.

My hands were tied
behind my back.

That's how it started for me.

I was 21 when I
was taken hostage.

That day, the day it took the
American embassy and took us

hostage is the day that the
war on terrorism started.

The wall where they entered,
that was motor pool gate.

That's the southwest
corner of the compound.

And so we locked down in
the Consular Building, which

was separate from the embassy
and from the warehouse

and from the residences.

And they could not get
into our building at first.

We couldn't see into the
compound, so everything we knew

was based on what the Marines
were putting out on the radio.

And we knew that the Iranians
were increasingly taking over.

And then we heard footsteps
on the roof of the building.

The power went out.

They shut that down.

Shortly after
that, it was decided

we should leave the building.

We had access to the back
of the embassy compound,

and so the thought was that
we could get out the back

and head down some
of the other streets

there and make our
escape that way.

The Consul General
told us we should

go to the British embassy.

There was Bob Andrews,
Cora, and Mark Lijek, Joe

Stafford and his wife, Kathy.

They were caught up
in a crazy scenario.

We went out the
door, turned left,

headed west in the direction
of the British compound.

I was in line to
either go with that group

or to stay behind, and I
decided that I would stay.

And then we were taken prisoner.

They got caught right
away, and we didn't.

There were 66 Americans
that were being held hostage.

You're thinking, OK, this is
going to end pretty quick.

The government is
going to come in.

They're going to take control,
and it'll all be over.

And it didn't
work out like that.

That night was played
out on the couch.

Feet are tied.

Hands are tied.

All these Iranians,
and they're gathered

around this, literally--
this little transistor radio.

And you could hear somebody
on the radio speak in Farsi.

And I didn't know at the time
that it was Ayatollah Khomeini.

Ayatollah Khomeini led
the Islamic revolution.

They thought he was the
savior of the poor people.

They thought he was going to
bring democracy and fairness

and equality to the country.

Initially, it looked like
he was going to question

the action of the students.

And then--

Ayatollah Khomeini
announced that he

is in full support
of the takeover

of the United States Embassy.

He blessed them,
and then that was it.

They became Iran's heroes.

This, now, became
a test of wills

between the Iranian government,
the revolutionary government

and the American government.

And that's when I knew we were
going to be there for a while.

WILLIAM BELK (ON
RECORDING): I am all right.

I do expect to come home.

When?

I don't know.

ALAN GOLANCINSKI: Everybody
that was there suffered.

Make no mistake, there
was bad treatment.

[suspenseful music playing]

JOHN GRAVES (ON
RECORDING): I was

the highest-ranking
officer in their hands,

so I was isolated completely.

I was questioned and questioned
and not allowed to sleep.

Every day was a
psychological warfare.

You're always tested to
see, either you'll make it,

or you'll-- you'll be broken.

They would play with weapons
and put them to you, your head,

and say, tell me the
information or else.

I really wanted to cry.

I really wanted to cry.

And there were many
times that I did.

When these students climbed
over the wall of the American

Embassy and took these
diplomats and others hostage,

I was taken aback, like just
about everybody was taken aback.

I grew up in Iran, and we had a
very normal, fabulous childhood.

And then everything changed.

It was unprecedented.

And the reason it happened
was because President Carter,

at the time, had taken
in the exiled Shah

for urgent medical treatment.

The Shah became
unpopular at home

for his ostentatious lifestyle
and the torture of dissidents.

That all changed in 1979.

The Islamic Revolution
ushered in change, forcing

the Shah to flee the country.

When he was admitted
into the United States

for cancer treatment, they just
thought that was a step too far.

Many Iranians were
very, very angry.

They thought that
the Shah was evil.

And they were very afraid
that America was planning

to help bring the Shah back.

It was not an
action of revenge

against the American nation, but
was protest against the policies

of the American government.

I think it was Sunday
morning, real early,

a neighbor across the street,
he looked at me and says,

they got your dad, don't they?

My father knew it was dangerous.

And I remember,
when we came back

from dropping them
off at the airport,

his will was on the
dining room table.

I spent the rest of
the day on the phone

to Washington, trying to
find out what had happened.

Our government would not
release any information,

who was being held,
what are their names,

what are their positions.

So I was never sure
for over a month,

whether or not Barry was even
one of the people who was taken.

They wouldn't confirm anything.

That first 30 days--

I mean, the first 30 days was
hard because you were solitary,

as you sat tied to a chair.

And at night, they tie you to
your wrist, to your ankles,

and that's how you slept.

I had two interrogators--
a female and a male.

They said to me, you're a
member of the nest of spies.

They were paranoid.

They thought that we were
always spying on Iran.

We were doing something evil.

We have found no evidence that
proves that these people

are diplomats.

All evidence proves that
these people are spies.

My father became one of
the, quote, unquote, "spies."

He was, much of the
time, not allowed

to talk to the people with him.

JOHN GRAVES (ON RECORDING): Most
of the time we were blindfolded.

All I had were--

what I could hear, the chanting
crowd, which kept chanting,

death to America and America.

You could hear
individuals shooting,

and you don't know what
they were shooting at.

Six of our
colleagues in Tehran

escaped out the back
gate of the embassy,

the day the embassy
was being overrun.

And there they were in
the middle of Tehran,

not quite sure where they were
going, looking for refuge,

wherever they could find it.

It was like a bonfire--

Iran was-- and these six
Americans got caught up in it

and were stranded.

Bob Anders and the Lijeks
and the Staffords and Lee

Schatz, there was
really nowhere to turn,

except for other embassies.

That was the only
hope that they had.

But in order to get
to another embassy,

you're out on the street.

We, Americans, were
not popular in Tehran.

We went out in the direction
of the British embassy.

When we got within about
a couple of blocks,

we could see there
was a demonstration

going on in front of it.

If we had been found, we would
have been hostages as well.

Bob said his apartment
wasn't far away.

I went to my apartment.

We didn't know what
was going to happen.

It was time limited,
how long we could

survive in that apartment.

Basically, we knew
that, eventually, they

would search all of the houses.

They would get into the office
where the records were kept

or the embassy leases, and
they would send teams out.

They would find everyone.

So we were going to move.

We moved around to
several different places,

and I have an ace
in the hole, I hope.

Bob Anders reached out to
his counterpart at the Canadian

Embassy, John Sheardown.

They called Sheardown and
asked if he would take them in.

John said, why
didn't you call sooner?

They all started on a
Sunday, and on Saturday,

we were finally in safety.

We thought we were.

Welcome back to How
It Really Happened.

After the siege at
the US embassy began,

some of the hostages were being
subjected to public humiliation

by their Iranian captors.

Others were reportedly being
tortured behind the walls

of the compound.

Anger and frustration
in the United States

was at its boiling point, but
the worst was yet to come.

My name is Seargeat
Rodney Sickmann,

United States Marine Corps.

I like to give my
love to my family.

Each day you were there,
it wasn't getting better.

It was getting worse.

It was bad.

They could do whatever they
wanted to with us at any time.

We were in a fairly
large group in the basement

of the warehouse.

And I look up, and bam,
door comes blasting open.

Two guys in military uniforms
come in, rifles in your face--

up against the wall.

Put your hands against the wall.

And we could hear
them doing this

all the way up and
down the hallway,

where they had everybody.

And so they took
us all into a room,

and they lined us
up against the wall.

And then, all of a sudden,
somebody yelled out a command,

and they started making
noise, like they were

jacking rounds in the chamber.

And then it got real quiet, like
they were waiting for a command

to fire.

I really thought I was
really about to die.

But then they took
us one at a time.

They strip-searched
us, and they took

us and put us back in our room.

We were stripped our freedom,
our dignity, and our pride.

The Iranian hostage crisis,
it's a very definitive moment

in American history.

Now, the one bright
spot in that moment

is that six State Department
officers were able to get away,

and they took refuge in
the Canadian embassy.

We knew, broadly
speaking, what

was happening at the embassy.

We assumed the hostages were
not being very well treated.

That was heart rending.

I mean, there are friends.

For us, it was mostly
a matter of just

getting through the days.

At first, it was
quite comfortable.

Most of us read books, or we
played games, or slept a lot,

just going day by day.

But then as time went
on, we became concerned.

The Iranians could start
saying, there are some

people missing--

where are they--
and then, actually,

really go looking for them.

It could have been
really dangerous.

In early January, we had
been there almost two months,

and we began to realize
that as more time went on,

there were bigger chances of
us being found by accident

or somebody got sick or
needed to go to the hospital,

and it just was inevitable
that something would happen.

There was no movement
on the hostages.

We can't stay here until
they negotiate their release.

If the hostages
hadn't been released,

we felt we could be a problem.

We started to realize that
we couldn't just join up

with the other
hostages when they

would be released because they
would say, where have you been?

The Iranian students
thought that everybody at

the American embassy was a spy.

They really did.

The fact that these
six people were hiding

would only have confirmed
their suspicions.

It just seemed like we
were pushing our luck.

We had no choice.

We couldn't stay there.

We're leaving.

The only question is how?

There was no good way out.

Someone was going to have
to come and get them.

And that's when CIA
came into the picture.

Because one thing CIA is very
good at is getting people out

of really sticky situations.

It came in a memo.

The State Department people,
they sent a memo to the CIA,

saying we've got to try and
figure out how to get them out.

And so Tony Mendez, who was
put in charge of this operation,

he had to come up with an
out-of-the-box solution.

Tony Mendez and his team
in the Office of Technical

Services, that's what they do.

We're getting ready to do
what we call an exfiltration.

We were running out of time.

And he came up with the
idea, just kind of randomly,

and it was a
ridiculously good idea.

[suspenseful music playing]

[chanting]

It was a wildly violent
and dangerous time in Iran,

so the six American
officials that

escaped, if any Iranians
knew that they were there,

then we've got problems.

Every day was
compounding the risk

of something stupid happening.

My husband, Tony Mendez,
he had to try and figure

out how to get them out.

That was Tony's business.

I was working as a identity
transformation specialist, which

is a bureaucratic way
of saying, we made

disguises and false identities.

Tony was an artist, and
he saw an ad in the paper

in Denver that said, wanted to
work for the US government--

an artist.

Work at the CIA.

They were looking for
a counterfeiter forger,

and he was in.

They hired him, then
became chief of disguise.

It's all about magic and
illusion, and it works.

The president of
the United States,

he made the final decision.

I got a message from Washington
that said the president

has approved your mission.

Good luck.

We were ready to roll.

[chanting]

There's a knock on the door.

I opened the door,
and there's two guys

standing there in trench coats.

Tony Mendez and Ed Johnson,
people whose expertise is to get

in and out of dangerous places.

And they said, OK,
we've got some plans,

so we get you out of here.

And they told us three
possible cover stories,

one that we were engineers.

Petroleum engineers,
that's a field where

you need to know something.

And it would be
easy for somebody

to realize that we didn't.

Two, we were teachers.

The International
school was closed,

so being teachers looking
for jobs didn't make sense.

These were unlikely
to hold up to scrutiny.

And they came upon
a really wild idea

that that wound up
being the perfect idea.

The third was a
Hollywood story.

We're going to go
make a fake movie,

and they immediately
discarded the teachers.

They discarded the
other, and they said,

we like the Hollywood thing.

In their business, typically,
you want to fly below the radar,

and they went completely
the opposite way--

the story of Argo.

In the Academy
Award-winning film Argo,

Ben Affleck plays the real-life
CIA disguise expert Tony Mendez.

You can't afford to
wait around until spring.

The only way out of that
city is the airport.

Tony Mendez had been the
chief of disguise for CIA,

so he had reached out
to people in Hollywood.

He had a friend
named John Chambers,

who actually won an Academy
Award for Planet of the Apes.

And John was the one
who told Tony, just

say you're part of
a scouting location

crew for a Hollywood movie.

You'll be able to go anywhere.

You know those science fiction
movies, Star Trek, Star Wars.

They need an exotic
location to shoot--

moonscape, Mars, desert.

I fly into Tehran.

We all fly out together
as a film crew.

And so that was the genesis
of this exfiltration idea.

They were a film
crew based in Canada,

and they were looking
for a place to film.

This Scenario, I
thought, was brilliant.

Who better than
Hollywood people to show

up in the middle of a revolution
and try to shoot a movie?

It was a compelling thought.

Everybody knows that
people from Hollywood

are a little eccentric.

So the idea was set
up a movie company

and come up with a
movie that would make

sense to send a location crew to
Tehran during this time period.

It's going to be a Middle
Eastern sci-fi thriller.

Fade in on a starship landing,
an exotic Middle Eastern vibe.

Women gather offering ecstatic
libations to the sky gods--

.

They found a script.

They named it after a foul
language, knock, knock joke

that we used to tell.

What does argo mean?

Argo was a short way of saying,
oh, go [audio out] yourself.

It means oh, go
[bleep] yourself.

We started putting together
Studio 6 Productions.

The reason we called it
Studio 6, by the way,

is because there were six
people we were rescuing.

And so that was
part of the fun is

to have that right up in front.

The Hollywood scenario
came with all the trimmings.

He had a script.

We even had some drawings.

And there was somebody
back in Hollywood

that would answer the phone if
someone called to check on us.

For three days, we
were given character

information--
where we were from,

background information to learn.

One of them is the
cinematographer, one of them

is the director, one of
them is the scriptwriter.

I was Terry Harris.

I was the writer in the
group, so I had the script.

I was a location manager.

I have a business card.

Here it is, Studio 6.

My name there was Robert
Baker, the location manager.

They're going to have to
learn it and live it in order

to get through the airport.

And then off they went.

REPORTER: In Tehran,
the Iranian parliament

met to discuss
the hostage crisis

and demanded that the United
States repent what they called

its crimes under the Shah.

The actions of Iran have
shocked the civilized world.

Everybody now had a
television in their living room,

and they tuned in to the hostage
crisis every single night

and watched what was not going
on because there was no change.

REPORTER: This was a
week of frustration

for the families of the
American hostages in Iran.

There were many
signs that pointed

to a release of their loved
ones, but by week's end,

they were still
being held captive.

But then Khomeini decided that
the really smart thing to do

would be to release the
women and people of color,

and so they did--

13 people.

They actually told us we
released these people so that--

in solidarity, with
the poor, oppressed

peoples of the United States.

They, apparently, really
thought that Americans would

say, oh, they're
really good guys

and basically divide
the American people

and get a lot of the American
people on their side.

Of course, it didn't
work that way at all.

They always told us in our
interrogations, it's not you,

the American people, we
hate, it's your government.

But we will use you to
humiliate your government.

BARRY ROSEN: I was getting
letters from Barbara.

I would like to send
my love to my wife,

Barbara, and my two children,
Alexander and Arianna.

The press literally parked
outside of my parents' home

in Brooklyn.

They walked out,
what's happening?

What's happening?

My son, as a
three-year-old, how do

you deal with the
uncertainty of not

knowing what's happening to--

to daddy?

Will he come home?

We didn't know what
he was going through,

and that's something
that we had to live with.

And that is hard.

We were brought
to Evin Prison.

Automatic weapons were
going off all the time.

It brought great,
profound fear in our hearts.

I got to go outside
once a month, on average.

But there were months--

there were two or three months
when I didn't go outside at all.

Most of the time, we were
just locked up inside.

They didn't give us any news.

They didn't want us
knowing anything.

To my wife and my many
children, I'm well and happy.

Communication
was fairly limited.

You'd always be stuck in
front of the television.

And sometimes, you get a glance
where they had a picture of him.

It was very, very
tough on my mom.

Here she is, her
husband is being held.

What's going to
happen with her life,

and what is she going to do?

I need my husband.

My children need their father.

[suspenseful music playing]

Their trip to the
airport was still dark.

I think Tony wanted to do
it early because people are

sluggish at 5:00 AM, and so
it was a good time for us

to go through the formalities.

And then when we
got to the airport,

the lights just
seemed so bright.

We had not been in public
for months at that point.

And we're supposed
to look for Tony,

and he's over
there at Swiss Air,

and he's smiling, which is the
sign that we're good to go.

We had to deal with immigration,
and that was the scary part.

You know, that was where,
if this was going to fail,

that was what was
going to be the cause.

The eight of us
arrived at immigration,

put down our authentic-looking,
phony document packages.

We had been told to destroy
anything with our real names

on it.

The Canadian
Parliament, they gave us

real passports for those
folks with cover names.

The problem with
brand new passports

is when you come into a
country, your passport

gets stamped to show that
you've entered the country.

But with these brand new
passports, they don't have that.

So Tony and Ed put
in the documentation

so that it will look
like that they've

already been there all along.

It was more crowded
in the waiting area

so that was a little bit
scary, because a lot of people

had seen my face and
Kathy and Joe's face

because we were all doing
the visa interviews,

and we probably saw more
Iranians than anybody else.

So I was worried about one
of us being identified.

And they called our flight.

When they call
your flight, you

go through the security check
and into a smaller waiting room.

They announced that there
was a mechanical problem,

and it would be three hours.

Of course, that was a
panic because three hours

could turn into six hours.

There's always the
realization that this thing

could fail, that some--

something could happen.

When they started making the
,

they're going to
change some things.

In real-life,
real CIA operations,

our hope is that it will
be as boring as possible,

that there won't be any
hiccups, that there won't be any

last-minute surprises,
unlike the movie

in which there's gunmen chasing
after them down the runway.

In fact, it was very
anticlimactic at the airport.

They get on the plane, and
they fly off to freedom.

It was a relief
to get in the plane

and on a seat, the first step of
the journey of actually leaving.

We were lucky.

That's all you can say.

Four American diplomats
and wives of two of them

were spirited out of
Iran over the weekend

by Canadian embassy officials.

They'd given the
Americans secret refuge

since militants took over
the US embassy last November.

I asked them to not-- never
let on that CIA was involved

if it was a secret
and to make sure

that everybody in
the world knows that

this is a Canadian operation.

And therefore, the attention
won't be turned on the Americans

in the embassy who
were being held.

This dramatic escape is
bound to refocus attention

on the hostage crisis.

And in this volatile
climate, there is concern

about what happens next.

It was a scary time.

Everybody was frustrated
that the negotiations,

what little there were,
weren't going anywhere.

President Carter
tried to negotiate.

He was so embedded to make
sure that we all came home.

We have tried every
possible and feasible

effort to resolve this crisis by
humanitarian and peaceful means.

We are still continuing
those efforts.

The first few
days of April that I

had had a visit with
a couple of people

from the State Department--

this was not an official
State Department position,

but they came to me
privately and said,

if we're ever going to take
any action to do anything

about this, now is the time.

That was when everything
went into motion.

US military personnel,
together with the air crews,

embarked on an operation to
prepare for a rescue of the US

citizens held hostage in Iran.

They went for
eight helicopters.

And helicopters, as we
know, are tricky creatures,

and three had developed
a unfixable problem.

And they got to
the landing site.

They called it off.

And then in the process
of getting out of there

and flying home, they had
a collision on the ground.

Eight people lost their
lives, eight individuals,

who had the guts to try to come
over to regain our freedom.

The Iranians didn't have a clue
that any of this was going on,

and they didn't until Jimmy
Carter went on the air

and told them about it.

I share the disappointment
of the American people

that this rescue mission
was not successful.

I also shared the grief.

He took this very,
very personally.

The Iranians, they
went into panic mode.

All the hostages were
supposedly all in the compound

of the American embassy.

after the failed
rescue attempt, we

were spread out
around the country,

because they don't want the
United States to find us.

Mr. President, seven months
ago, this Sunday, the hostages

were seized in Iran.

Yes.

Is there any reason
to hope that they

are any closer to being freed?

This may last a long time.

And you make artificial
deadlines for yourself.

Maybe we'll be
home by Christmas,

or maybe we'll be
home by my birthday.

Maybe we'll be
home in the summer.

And each one passed.

We would go, often,
to the candlelight

vigils in front of the Iranian
embassy on Mass Avenue.

Just holding a candle
and singing songs.

And every Sunday
night, we would say,

I hope I don't
see you next week.

But week after week after
week, we were there,

and they were still held.

The Iranians were restricting
the amount of information

that we had.

But we found out, on November 5,
that Ronald Reagan was elected.

Americans across the country
voted in record numbers in some

states to make Ronald
Reagan the 40th

president of the United States.

And that made the difference.

Carter was the personification
of the Satan America in

the Iranian view of the Shah.

It was good that our
presidential cycle occurred when

it did, because they could then
not reward him with the release

of the hostages.

The Iranians came to
us after the election

through the offices
of the Algerians.

We started to set a negotiation.

And so Jimmy Carter, as
a lame duck president,

actually negotiated one of the
more complicated arrangements

that we've ever made.

My reaction was
my bags are packed.

It was time to go.

REPORTER: Hostage.

If ever a word has burned itself
into the American consciousness,

it is this.

For 14 months, the
nation was obsessed

with the fate of the Americans
held hostage in Iran.

Then, on Tuesday, day 444,
they were hostages no longer.

It took 444 days,
and it was only

a change of American
president that enabled

the release of these hostages.

On the day that he was going
to actually be turning the job

over to somebody else, Carter
spent in the Oval Office,

dealing with the final stages
of getting this thing done.

REPORTER: The
Iranian news agency

is reporting that the departure
of our 52 American hostages

is imminent.

I talked to Carter twice, when
he was in the car with Reagan,

on the way up to
the inauguration.

And I did get him the news
that they were being released,

but they weren't out yet.

About 9 o'clock,
we're sitting there.

Door opens-- come with me.

Everybody was blindfolded.

We were marched outside
and put on buses.

You drive for, I don't
know, 30 or so minutes,

and all of a sudden,
it turns right,

and you hear a sound
of a jet engine,

and my heart is pounding.

Took us off one at a time,
down through the corridor,

with screaming people.

They're chanting
death to America,

and they're spitting on us.

And I could see on the other
end of this pathway, stairs

going up on the Algiers plane.

And by the time we
got me halfway there,

I was dragging them along
rather than pushing me.

We're boarding the
back of this airplane.

Here you are, looking at
people that you hadn't seen

since November 4th of 1979.

Everybody's saying hello
and shaking hands and hugging.

The pilot comes on and
says, please be seated.

We must take off very
quickly, starts accelerating,

plane shaking, and
all of a sudden,

it comes back down to an idle.

They turn the runway lights off.

I mean, the Iranians
really wanted to stick it

to Jimmy Carter, and so they
waited until the inauguration

before we were
actually flown out.

They kept the lights off
until he was out of office,

and President Reagan was in.

I, Ronald Reagan,
do solemnly swear.

I, Ronald Reagan,
do solemnly swear.

President Carter was
officially out of office.

Reagan was sworn in,
and they let us go.

We then knew
that we were free.

And Joy was enormous--
just absolutely enormous.

We walked out of
the house in Brooklyn,

and we just announced
that it was over.

Well, the phone call just
came, and now it is official.

REPORTER: Alex Rosen,
in his mommy's arms,

and with sister Ari with
him, made the announcement.

Daddy's coming home.

I said, tell everybody.

And he goes,
daddy's coming home.

We arrived in s United States.

There were people holding up
signs and thumbs up and high

five and the whole bit.

It was a surprise.

It was truly a very,
very heartwarming.

I really meant a lot to us.

They were united in
welcoming them home.

It was just unreal.

It's the best way I
can put it, you know?

And when you're sitting there
thinking about coming home

and dreaming about coming
home, and it didn't match

what it was like to come home.

It's hard to express
this sense of joy,

seeing Barbra,
seeing those kids.

It was a mixture of tears
and joy at the same time.

I was a stranger in many ways.

But to see those faces and the
smiles, that was wonderful.

Coming home, it's a
second chance in life.

I have Jo and three
wonderful children.

I've gone fishing with
my boys, my daughters,

walked them down the aisle.

I've held my grandkids.

My father was very happy.

That was a good time.

JOHN GRAVES (ON RECORDING):
I had no idea that I would

spend 14 months as a hostage.

I never thought I would survive.

My father never talked
a lot about what happened,

but you could see a
big change in him.

He became a lot more closed in.

He did not handle crowds at all.

It was very different--
very different.

I'm just very
appreciative that we were

able to get out of there alive.

There's a picture of me
with my hands on my head

being led across the compound.

In front of the
embassy building,

now, there's a bronze
statue of me like that.

And it's not the embassy, it's
the Museum of the Den of Spies.

After more than 14
months in captivity,

the 52 hostages returned
to the United States

as homecoming heroes.

They were honored in a ticker
tape parade in New York

and greeted by
newly-sworn in President

Reagan at the White House.

But despite the
hero's welcome, many

were left with both physical
and psychological scars

from their unprecedented ordeal.

More than four decades
later, in 2022, Congress

passed the Iran hostages
Congressional Gold Medal

Act, recognizing
their resilience

and sacrifice for our country.

I'm Jesse L. Martin.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.

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