Former Marine Sgt. Rocky Sickmann was in Iran only a month before that fateful day in 1979 when an angry mob of student demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, sweeping him into a historic standoff that many say cost Jimmy Carter his presidency.
Sickmann, a 22-year-old military guard, saw his reality collapse when President Carter allowed the exiled Shah of Iran to arrive in New York for medical treatment, just as a new clerical government brought to power the Ayatollah Khomeini.
Now director of military and industry affairs for Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, Sickmann still feels the gravity of the excruciating 444 days he spent as a hostage alongside 52 other Americans, pawns in a political bog that’s as dense today as it was 37 years ago.
Q: Tell us about your first days in the military.
A: I graduated from high school in the small town of Washington, Mo., wanting to join the service and see the world. I became a Marine and traveled to Asia and Europe, where I met my wife, Jill, of 35 years. Eventually, I trained to be a Marine security guard; at 22, I took a post in Iran. It was supposed to last a year.
Q: What happened Nov. 4, 1979?
A: We were warned something may happen, but there were demonstrations every day. I was walking to the motor pool, about to have a driver take me to town, when my walkie-talkie went off: “Recall! Recall!” I saw demonstrators climbing over the gates. I ran to the embassy as the steel doors were locking down. They held it long enough for me to squeeze through.
Q: What was captivity like?
A: For the first 30 days, I was mostly bound hand and foot to an office chair in a corner. We couldn’t speak. Then through the cracks in the windows, you can hear the world go on without you and you start thinking, “Who really cares about us?” Yes, our loved ones, but your mind plays these difficult scenarios.
Q: How did you get through?
A: Remembering what everyone was doing back home, especially during the first Thanksgiving, and that first Christmas. We had very little contact with the other hostages. I was outside maybe seven times, 15 minutes each time. They took away our freedom, dignity and pride. They’d subject us to interrogations and mock firing squads.
Q: What happened the day you were freed?
A: Of course, I remember Jan. 20, 1981. They took our shoes back in March 1980, so when we left the car, I remember the snow melting under my feet. It was cold, but wonderful. Then we were in the jet, blindfolds off , looking at each other, people we had not seen in 444 days because they’d only allow us in small groups. No one was high-fiving. No celebrating. We waited on the tarmac just long enough for Carter to leave office. Then we took off. It was only when the pilot announced we were over Turkish airspace and would get a flown escort that we knew we were free.
Q: Did your experience change you?
A: Like everyone, sometimes I struggle to get up in the morning. Then I go into a c-store for a water, breakfast and a banana, and it rings up $4.44. It’s a sign. Freedom isn’t free. In 1980, eight people died in a mission to try to save me. You never forget.
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