A Marine Endures hell

Kenneth Kraus was a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, Marine Security Guard Battalion. He had been re-assigned from his main duty station, the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus to the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. The American Embassy in Iran came under siege by terrorists on February 14th of 1979- Valentine’s Day.

The Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi had been overthrown by a coalition of different groups: moderate Democrats, Marxist terrorists, Islamic fundamentalists, Kurds and Turkmen. The Fedayeen were a Guerrilla group composed of Marxist terrorists who were controlled and supported by the Soviet Union. The Homofars were warrant officers in the Iranian Air Force which started supporting Khomeini.

The Shah of Iran and his wife had fled to Egypt in January of that year leaving a very unstable government to Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar who still had the support of the Imperial Guard. The Homofars started demonstrating in favor of the spiritual leader Imam Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Homofars raided the Doshan Tappeh Air Base armory and started distributing weapons to the growing indignant crowd. The Imperial Guard moved in to arrest them which triggered an all-out bloody battle.

A few Iranian Army helicopters flew in to support the Imperial Guard, but they were heavily outnumbered and lacked coordinated communication, command, and control. It was a religious Civil War amongst brothers and neighbors. The Iranian Navy joined the terrorists, at least in word they joined. Prime Minister Bakhtiar fled from his palace, leaving Ayatollah Khomeini as the Political and Religious Supreme Leader of Iran.

Since the U.S. had been a prominent backer of the Shah, the U.S. Embassy represented a legitimate enemy target. Many Iranians believed and were led by the newly controlled media, that the Tehran Embassy was a “den of CIA spies”, and thus a supporter of the SAVAK (Sazeman-e Ettela’at va Amniat-e Kesvar)- the Shah’s dreaded secret police service. The local Iranian Police began to retreat as the entire city erupted into chaotic violence. A political and religious Civil War was in full force in the area, and it reached the Embassy on February 14th of 1979. The Embassy was attacked by Marxist Guerrillas from the Fedaiyan e-Khalq, and armed members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), taking Ken Kraus and many others hostage.