I stayed at the Thayer during a visit to West Point and could not help but be awed by the history that place holds. West Point itself is an amazing place, a trip through the Museum alone will take you more than a day and the whole experience is not to be missed but my mind kept coming back to the hotel. It stands on the grounds of the Academy and has a guest list of some of the most influential people of our time. The walls in that place have some tales I'm sure.

Michael,

Thanks so much for sharing this. I was a young teen when this took place, and my memories are fairly vague. This brings them into better focus.

And thank you to the Canadian government for issuing those passports used to help the hostages escape.

Nancy
Arizona

Thank you for this story Michael, I had faint memory as a 20 year old. You know, its getting hard to read your posts without crying, makes my mascara drip, ha.

Were the embassy personnel who were held hostage the same personnel who engineered the overthrow of iran's democratically elected government in "Operation Ajax". If so they are not heroes but unethical individuals who lack courage. True heroism also includes the ability to refuse illegal orders.

Very rarely will you ever find that more than a few people "at the top" ever actually know what is going on and why to the full extent, & the "why" is less and less reliable as it trickles down to the masses. It isn't clear in the history books that we read in school or the books and articles that mention it what went on or why, so you can't know unless you actually read a book on the subject by someone who was there. If you're lucky enough to read the full story in classified documents, you are one of the very privileged few. As a military member who is finding out more and more that our military doesn't get the credit it deserves for heroism or even just tedious work that has to get done, and gets far too much credit for disasters and crimes (you really think every soldier, sailor, marine, airman is privy to government conspiracies, works as an assassin, has ninja skills and a crazy loaded secret bank account?!), I would like to admonish the person whose identity is only Shukri on his or her comment to please read up on the actual incident, why it happened, how it happened, and who these people present at this embassy were before bringing in their negative feedback, accusing them of being anything but victims of horrible political turmoil: I applaud you, Mr. Yon for bringing up this reminder for everyone, including those of us who weren't around when it happened, and all of the survivors of such an ordeal. I'm sure that the physical and psychological trauma were no less than harrowing, and I'm proud to say that I am a patriotic American serving in our military because of the influence of people throughout our history like y'all and the patriots before you. Thank you.

Thanks for this Michael. A good, and necessary reminder. When I was in grade school we actually had one of the hostages come and talk to our class. I cannot remember his name, but that visit has always stuck in my memory.

id rather start with "im an Iranian". my name's Salma and i know that some of you might have seen my posts here on Michael's magazine, but as soon as i received the post about the Iran's rescue, i just thought i want to write a few lines for my fellow American friends.
every year,on the same day the American authorities were held hostage, they role the American flag on the floor of each building, each organization, most of the schools and universities, pretty much every where for the people to step on as a sign of disrespect...
it happens every year and i swear to God i would stop it, if i could. if only i had the power to do so, i would. but since there's almost nothing i could do about this, here's my "sorry" letter to the people i have been friends with for over 6 years, people i have learned from, people i have trusted, the people i care about... the Americans.
this is what i want to happen from deep inside of my heart: to see us, our two countries in peace someday and i do hope that if its going to happen in this world, then i pray that i am still alive that very day. i will pray...

To us
Salma

I feel so sad for you Salma. You know, the longer I live the more I have come to believe that most "ordinary" people wish to get along. Religion and politics do the stirring up. I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of Iranians would be like this person.

I worked for a gentleman who later went on to become one of the passengers on the very last plane out of Tehran before the escape of Americans became impossible. The story of his getting on the plane and relief as he flew out was quite dramatic. He was over there working on "a top secret project". I suspect we can all pretty much surmise good candidates for the project. He had to get from near the Northern border down to Tehran and get on the plane. We're both retired now, of course.

{^_^}