Posted on 06/07/2004 2:05:39 AM PDT by ambrose
osted June 07, 2004
Former hostage recalls Reagan, gaining freedom
President's optimism fondly remembered
The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - Twenty-three years after being freed in Iran, the youngest of the 52 Americans held hostage there still keeps a picture of himself and President Ronald Reagan on his wall.
Kevin Hermening and the other hostages held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran were freed after nearly 15 months on Jan. 20, 1981 - Reagan's inauguration day.
A week later, Hermening and other hostages met Reagan at the White House.
Interviewed by telephone Sunday from his home at Mosinee in northern Wisconsin, Hermening remembered the former president fondly as charming, sincere and optimistic. Reagan died Saturday in California.
"I think he lived that optimism until yesterday," Hermening said.
Hermening, now 44, was a 21-year-old Marine guard when Islamic revolutionaries ousted Iran's U.S.-backed shah in 1979 and held U.S. embassy workers hostage for 444 days.
Hermening said he had little interest in politics before then, and the first time he heard Reagan's name was after the 1980 presidential election - from his captors.
"They told us in November a guy named Ronald Reagan beat (Jimmy) Carter," Hermening recalled.
A few months later, the captors brought more news: it looked like a deal was reached and the hostages would soon go home.
"But we have been told those things frequently during the 444 days, so we didn't get our hopes up too much," Hermening said.
The following evening, about two hours before Reagan was to be sworn into office, Hermening and others were told to grab their things and were sent on their trip home.
Hermening knew the Carter administration did most of the negotiating for the hostage release, but he said Reagan's likely willingness to take military action contributed much in getting the hostages home.
At the White House, Reagan presented Hermening with a State Department award for valor and a Defense Meritorious Service Medal.
"It was an awe-inspiring experience to meet face to face with the president," he said.
In the years that followed, Hermening said he met Reagan five more times as he gradually became involved in Republican politics.
"For me (Reagan) was the first president that I really grew up with," he said.
Hermening was on a national committee representing Wisconsin Young Republicans in 1984 and campaigned for Reagan's re-election. He later met Reagan again when he made an unsuccessful run for Congress. His last meeting with the president was in 1988.
The Oak Creek native now owns a financial planning business and has been on the Mosinee school board for 10 years.
"I think he inspired an entire generation, the baby boomers, to get involved and be involved in community service," he said. "Obviously, he didn't lay down his own life in service to his country on a battlefield, but he certainly gave his life's work in serving his country."
Worth repeating...
Yes it is. Carter was either afraid of or disliked our military. The best he could do to free his people was Operation Helicopter Crash, which, if not for the Canadians coming in to help after the tragedy, would have been even worse.
Jimmy Carter turned our nation into a laughingstock.
Reagan gave us pride again and helped bring peace to the world.
THAT'S worth repeating, too.
BUMP
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