You have to scroll a little more than half way down for the article. I added the red highlighting.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1272467/posts November 6, 2004
>snip
One of those former hostages is a retired Navy pilot who lives in the southern Indiana community of Bedford.
After eight months at the embassy in Tehran, Don Sharer was writing his admiral in Washington, saying he hoped to be home in two weeks.
"As I'm writing the letter, 10:30 in the morning, 4 November, 1979, they came over the wall,” said Sharer.
They were Iranian militants who wanted the Shah of Iran returned to that country from the United States, where he was getting medical treatment. After a couple of weeks, Sharer knew he'd be a hostage for a long time.
"They'd line us up against the wall. We were blindfolded and handcuffed and they started chambering rounds, letting empty rounds fall on the floor, clicking empty guns, laughing, saying, 'This is an execution' in broken English,” said Sharer.
Sharer survived, in part, by setting up a daily routine. It came to include two hours of running in place.
"W hen you're running in place you'd let your mind drift to where you used to run before you got over there. And I came from Chesapeake, Virginia and I had this country lane I'd run down all the time. We'd see deer; and I just put that in my mind and that's where I ran. In my mind I ran in Chesapeake, Virginia,” said Sharer.
Sharer also survived by standing up to his captors. When asked to lie down by his captors who said they would shoot him, he refused, telling them he planned to be standing if they were to shoot him. “I'm a Navy fighter pilot. Fighter pilots are the craziest guys in the world and do the most obnoxious things,” said Sharer.
The militants released their hostages after 444 days. Sharer met Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and Senator Richard Lugar. It was a hero's welcome home.
Still, 25 years later, Sharer wants justice for his captors. "We were kidnapped. We were held for ransom. That's a criminal act. I don't care what country you're in, what society in the world. They have never paid for that,” he said.
The US released more than $7 billion in frozen Iranian assets before the hostages were released.
Don Sharer says the former hostages and their families deserve that money back from Iran. He's organizing a group of hostages who are trying to persuade Congress to make that happen.
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