Hostages

(Ahmad Salamatian speaking French)

Reporter: It is said that you are the Ayatollah's man,

his favorite son, and that you, effectively,

run the government, and it's a parallel government.

-Would you say that's true? -Not at all. No. It is not true.

The Ayatollah does not run the government.

The Ayatollah runs the Revolution.

He's the leader of the Revolution.

-Reporter: Alright, the Ayatollah-- -The Revolution isn't over.

Michael Metrinko: The Shah leaves, Khomeini enters,

the entire structure of government collapsed.

Nobody knew who was actually in charge

because a lot of people who had been in charge

were trying to leave.

Top officials all around the country

are being rounded up and executed.

Every day, the front page of the newspaper

had the bodies of dead people on it

lying on marble slabs,

day after day after day after day.

This was an all-out brutal civil war.

You know, we never thought that the Shah will go.

We never thought that we will be victorious.

The reason that we are all supporting Ayatollah Khomeini

is because, at last,

he made our dreams to come true.

(Ebrahim Asgharzadeh speaking Persian)

Kathryn Koob: In 1979,

we downsized the embassy...

because of the Revolution

and the potential danger.

A lot of personnel came home,

wives and children, particularly.

But I wanted to set off to see

how an Islamic Republic was going to be developed.

Some of my family said, "Nah,

we don't think this is a good idea."

But I said, "I'll be alright.

They'll bring me home if it's not safe."

Al Golacinski: We were not carrying a lot of people there.

We had a basic amount of people

to just keep the whole thing going.

But there was only so much

that we could do.

There was 27 acres there.

And we had Marines coming in.

We had a number of people

that had been there for less than a couple of weeks.

Paul Lewis: I got to Tehran November 3rd,

and as we were landing in Tehran,

it seemed that there were a lot of fires on the ground.

-(fires crackling) -(police siren wailing)

And the airport was a madhouse.

Every young man in blue jeans and a field jacket

had an automatic weapon.

So when I got there, I asked the Marine,

"Gunny, where are they gonna billet all the extra Marines?"

And he said, "What are you talking about?"

He said, "You're it, buddy. That's all I got."

I'm 22. I'm thinking

I spent two years in the Marine Corps

volunteering for everything that was dangerous.

I'm afraid of nothing, and I would like to leave.

I am scared to death.

John Limbert: November 4th was another work day.

It was the beginning of the work day,

and I do remember specifically that I needed a haircut

and thinking, "Um, I should--

"should I go get a haircut and then go in later?"

Koob: I was at the Iran- America Society,

getting ready for a staff meeting,

when my secretary came in

and she said, "You need to take this phone call."

So, I picked up the phone, and he said,

"There are demonstrations in front of the embassy,

and they're very serious."

And he said, "Be very careful."

Victor Tomseth: On November 4th, we had a meeting

that had been scheduled with the legal affairs department

at the Iranian Foreign Ministry at 10:00.

So, I set out with

one of our security personnel who sat in the front seat

with an Uzi in his lap.

Reza Deghati: I was working for "Newsweek."

All the press, local and internationally,

we are invited to Tehran University,

and I said, "Something going to happen."

And suddenly, I said,

"US Embassy.

Idiot! US Embassy!"

And I rushed to the embassy.

Metrinko: Suddenly, there's massive noise.

I go to the window, and I look out.

I see a vast crowd of people.

John Limbert: And you could hear the chants,

and then all of a sudden, they got louder,

and we basically looked out and said,

"Holy moly!"

Wow.

And I went around

to take one or two pictures.

And I see they were jumping, I said, "Well, Reza, jump.

Let's go see what's going on inside."

-Metrinko: The embassy alarm system goes off. -(alarm buzzing)

People are yelling, "Everybody get away from the windows!

Get away from the front offices!"

They were passing out gas masks.

My role was to maintain security.

And they had broken through these windows.

And so, we moved

our personnel upstairs

behind the steel door.

And we contacted our Marines

who were just off the campus

and told them to take cover there.

Lewis: We were billeted across Bizhan Alley.

I was told to get out of the shower because we're being attacked.

I hadn't even unpacked my clothes yet.

Tomseth: We actually got in the car

to start back from the Foreign Ministry,

but Al Golacinski came onto the radio and said,

"Try to get some help."

And so, we did several things.

First thing, we asked for

a phone so we could talk to both Washington

and people in the embassy.

I was talking to Ann Swift,

who was my deputy in the political section.

And I said, "Start destroying stuff.

"Get rid of stuff.

"You don't want any of these sensitive documents

"to be visible and available.

Start shredding the files."

(Mohammad Naeemipour speaking Persian)

Lewis: Hadn't seen anyone taken yet,

but we're listening to all the radio traffic.

Then I started hearing Iranians talking on our radio net,

so they've gotten a handset somewhere.

Called the main compound, told them we were cut off,

we're locking the doors and barricading the doors.

When they finally kicked our door,

we just broke our radios and surrendered.

Golacinski: In our cameras, I started seeing

some of our Marines being marched

through our compound.

Lewis: As we're being taken onto the compound,

the crowd starts swelling at us

like water running towards us.

I'd never been up close to people

that stirred up emotionally.

And they chanted over and over

something ending in " marg bar ."

Over and over and over again.

: Marg bar Amrika!

And I finally asked one of the guards

what is this " marg bar " thing?

And he said, "That means death."

Golacinski: The first thought that came to me was

"Go out and negotiate with them."

You know, I gave up my weapon,

and I went out the window.

That was my responsibility

to do what I could to protect our personnel.

I still believed that we could get this taken care of,

until I was taken in

and taken upstairs.

Golacinski: They blindfold me

and threaten to hang me.

I thought it was it for me.

Koob: I was still at the Iran-America Society,

several miles from the embassy.

And I called the embassy switchboard,

and I got a man's voice

that said, "Embassy occupied."

So I called the ops center at the Department of State.

Sick: When you're in a meeting

and somebody from the operations center