Ex-hostages come home to tears, cheers
WEST POINT, N Y. (AP) -
The 52 hostages came home
Sunday, home to a sun
splashed welcome, home to a
nation’s love. Home to America
A presidential military jet
called "Freedom One” carried
the former prisoners of Iran to a
hillside airport and the private
embrace of their families.
Then — together at last — the
hostages and their relatives
rode at dusk through cheering,
waving crowds lining Hudson
Valley roads to a wild hello at the
gates of the U S. Military
Academy at West Point, where
they have been promised two
days of privacy.
Pres. Reagan stayed at the
White House to give the hos
tages and their families what
they most wanted: the chance to
talk to each other, alone
Reagan met with the families
Sunday morning in the State
Dining Room at the White
House to send them off to the
reunion.
It was an emotional moment;
he choked up.
Tears in his eyes, the new
president said, "Since we all
didn’t get to church this morn
ing because of this (ceremony),
can we just say, Dear God,
thank You. Thank You for what
You’ve done And God give you
the understanding and the pa
tience that you’ll need now with
regard to this homecoming and
get-together. Amen.”
A great national welcoming,
led by Reagan, is scheduled for
Army airlifts ex-hostage
to ailing mom’s bedside
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) -
Regis Ragan, one of the 52
American hostages who re
turned to the United States
Sunday, was flown immediately
to his hometown so he could be
at his ailing mother’s hospital
bedside.
Ragan, 38, flew with the other
hostages from West Germany to
Newburgh, N.Y., then was taken
by a small aircraft to John
stown's Cambria County Air
port, according to the John
stown Tribune-Democrat.
He was met by Lt. Col. Jim
Peterson, who had been as
signed by the Army to aid the
family after Mrs. Anna Ragan
was rushed to the hospital
Wednesday after taking the first
telephone call from her son
when he landed in West Ger
many.
She was reported in stable
condition in the coronary care
unit of the hospital and authori
ties said her condition had not
worsened
State Department spokes
woman Susan Pitman at West
Point, N.Y., confirmed that
Ragan went home, but she
would not disclose any details.
Asked if any of the other ex
hostages had left, she would
only say, “I can't tell you that."
Peterson would not comment
on Ragan’s plans, and it was not
known whether he planned to
join the other hostages Tuesday
in Washington for a meeting
with President Reagan.
Mrs. Ragan, 69, had been de
scribed as having been under
tremendous pressure during the
"\4'/2 months her son was held in
Iran.
Moscow blasts Carter policy;
U.S. calls claims ‘scurrilous’
MOSCOW (AP) - The Soviet
Communist Party, ignoring U S.
protests, published a commen
tary Sunday accusing former
President Carter of using Iran’s
seizure of the American hos
tages as a pretext to build up
U S. military might in the Persian
Gulf region.
The article in the party news
paper Pravda followed two
days of U.S. government pro
tests against Soviet media
coverage of the hostage crisis.
A separate Pravda commen
tary by the same author, Boris
Orehkhov, condemned Carter
as a "shortsighted figure” and
an “unreliable partner in inter
national relations," but held out
hope for improved relations with
the new administration of Pre
sident Reagan.
The Soviet media have con
sistently proclaimed its sym
pathies for the Iranians who
held 52 Americans hostage for
444 days and repeatedly
stressed the hostages were
“arrested" on charges of
‘espionage.’'
The U S. Embassy in Moscow
delivered notes Friday and Sat
urday to the Soviet Foreign
Ministry protesting those
reports
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Washington on Tuesday — a
week after the hostages' release
after 14'/2 months in captivity.
This was the most dramatic
homecoming the nation has
seen since prisoners of war flew
home from North Vietnam in
1973. For the hostages, the trip
started early Sunday at the
Rhein-Main Air Base in West
Germany
There was a somber moment,
though, when the motorcade
carrying the hostages and their
families twisted through the hills
to West Point. It passed eight
flagpoles flying American flags
at half staff, in memory of eight
servicemen killed in a failed
rescue attempt last April.
As the hostages passed
through the village of Highland
Falls, a church bell pealed 444
times, once for each day in
captivity. Finally the hostages’
long trip was over and they
poured into the Hotel Thayer
where the assistant manager,
Lee Curtis, offered them iced
shrimp, chips, dips, hors
d’oeurves and drinks, and left
them on their own.
When the plane landed at
Stewart Airport at Newburgh,
N Y., the first hostage off, a Ma
rine, kissed American ground.
Eight more Marines followed,
crisp in fresh uniforms, and
each saluted America as he
stood in the plane doorway
The hostages’ families flood
ed the tarmac
‘ Thank God!’’ they cried
"God bless America!”
When the'plane landed and its
doors flew open, the hostages
emerged, one by one, smiling
and waving But some had to be
helped down the stairs.
At the gates of the U S Mili
tary Academy at West Point,
several thousands persons
gathered. They chanted:
-"U S A ! U S A !”
—And: "Fifty-two, we love
you.”
Many waved flags in the cold,
brilliant, weather.
After half an hour of privacy,
the hostages and families
boarded buses for the ride to
West Point. Women were seen
walking arm-in-arm with their
long-gone husbands, wiping
tears from their eyes
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