‘How Jimmy Carter kept me alive in Iran’

Out of the many mourning former President Jimmy Carter, not everyone can say he saved their life.

Rocky Sickmann was a 22-year-old US Marine stationed at the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, when he and 51 other Americans were taken hostage by Iranian revolutionaries on 4 November, 1979.

It defined his life – as well as much of Carter’s presidency.

“For the first 30 days I’m sitting in this room handcuffed and blindfolded, thinking the Vietnam war had just ended, and nobody cared about these thousands of veterans coming home,” said the 67-year-old. “Who’s going to care about the Iran hostages?”

He said that at the time, he wasn’t even sure how much President Carter cared. It was a sentiment echoed by much of the American public. Many blamed Carter for his failure to bring the hostages home for over a year.

Political historians say part of the reason Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in a landslide – and served only one term as president – was because of his handling of the hostage crisis.

Minutes after Regan was sworn in, the hostages were released, although the deal had been in the works during Carter’s presidency.

Mr Sickmann said that Carter deserves to be forever admired for his relentless attempt to bring them home.

“He was a good man who wanted diplomacy. I found out after how deeply involved he was. He knew my parents. He took care of them, he would meet them in DC.”

When Mr Sickmann finally got to meet Carter himself, he wasn’t exactly dressed for the occasion.

He laughs: “We met him in our pyjamas! How do you meet your commander-in-chief dressed like that!”

Rocky was flown out with the other hostages to Wiesbaden, Germany, a year after they had been taken hostage. The day after they got there, Carter greeted them personally.

“It was a very exciting day because he used to be in the Marines and he said to meet us was the happiest day of his life.”

The meeting was captured in a photograph, which Carter would send to Sickmann 10 months after he had been voted out of the White House. It was signed: ‘To my friend, Rocky Sickmann”.

But it was not the last time that Mr Sickmann saw him. Just 10 years ago, he ran into Carter at a baseball game in Georgia. He had an usher pass the former president a note.

“He reads it – all of a sudden he gets up and he stands up and he turns around. I stand up and we waved at each other.”

Like Carter, Mr Sickmann went on to focus on charitable work. He said he was inspired by the former president to set up Folds of Honor, which provides scholarships to families of Americaʼs fallen or disabled military and first responders.

“President Carter was a good Christian man, married to his wonderful wife, and continued his life of service. I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good as him but I hope to be able to do the same thing.”

The charity was set up to honor the 8 US service men who were killed trying to rescue the hostages. In 1980, the mission, dubbed Eagle Claw, failed disastrously after three helicopters malfunctioned. It was the last straw for Carter politically – although he won the Democratic nomination, he was wiped out in the election by Ronald Reagan that year.

But while the Iran hostage crisis would be a dark mark on Carter’s political legacy, Mr Sickmann said he owes his life to Jimmy Carter.

“Morning, noon, and night, for 444 days, I never prayed so hard in my life, hoping that God was on our side,” he said.

“But also President Carter kept us alive. He kept us in front of the world, making sure that people were praying for us (too).”