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The former Commander in Chief also was reminded of the facts of military life. He was told that when the nine Marines who had been held captive first reported to the senior Marine colonel at Wiesbaden, their disheveled leader snapped off a salute and said: "The Marine squadron from Tehran reporting for duty, sir." Returning the salute, the smartly uniformed officer ordered them to march off to the Wiesbaden barbershop and get rid of beards and long hair. They did.
The civilians, too, among the former captives took hot showers to get ready for the last leg of their historic odyssey: the final flight home. After a reunion with their families in the seclusion of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., the liberated Americans were to be guests of the new Reagan Administration at a subdued ceremony at the White House this week. The families of the eight who died also will be honored.
Then the newest of America's heroes will try to pick up the routine of their lives. Greg Persinger will go home to Seaford, Del., and serve as best man at the wedding of his close friend Frank Thomas, who postponed his marriage until Greg could attend. In Hurst, Texas, Navy Lieut. Commander Robert Engelmann will find his Saab, which had been gathering dust for more than 14 months in the driveway, polished and ready to roll.
Steven Lauterbach will work his way through 1½ filing cabinets of letters sent to him by well-wishers and saved by his mother in Dayton. But Lauterbach's father Eugene is unlikely to get his wish: "I hope I never hear the word Iran again."
—By Ed Magnuson. Reported by Lee Griggs/Wiesbaden and Johanna McGeary/Washington