OTTAWA––John Sheardown won’t be with his former colleagues this weekend to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Canadian rescue of six American escapees from the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

The World War II vet and Order of Canada recipient is instead languishing in an Ottawa hospital bed where he has been waiting nearly two months for the veterans affairs ministry to determine whether he is eligible for a nursing home.

Along with Ken Taylor, the former Canadian ambassador to Iran, Sheardown and others at the Canadian embassy were celebrated in the United States and Canada for their bravery in sheltering the Americans during the Iranian hostage crisis and smuggling them from the country.

Even 30 years later, the great “Canadian Caper” remains a defining moment in relations between the two countries.

Today, it appears the 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient is remembered by few beyond his close circle of friends for his heroics, causing a heavy heart for his wife Zena.

“In his hour of need, where’s his country?” she told the Star. “I don’t really know what the hold-up at Veterans Affairs is. This is a man . . . who will be 86 in October, who has served overseas. He is amply qualified to be in a veterans’ home.”

The Sheardowns applied to have John admitted to Ottawa’s Perley and Rideau Veteran’s Health Care Centre in the second week of June. Nearly two months later, they have not received confirmation of his eligibility, and if they do, he could still face long wait for a bed.

A spokesperson for veteran’s affairs said the first step is to confirm whether the veteran making the application is eligible by verifying service and assessing health needs.

“The process just to determine eligibility can take time,” spokesperson Flora Fahr said. If and when that happens, “they can be on the wait list for 18 months for some units” depending on the care needs. Fahr said she could not comment on a specific case.

There are 171 veterans waiting for admission to Ottawa’s Perley and Rideau Veteran’s Health Care Centre, she added.

Fahr later added it usually takes only “a couple” of weeks to determine eligibility to the Perley and Rideau centre and noted the level of care required could speed admission.

Zena said it hurts her to see her husband of 35 years, who served overseas as a bomber pilot in the Canadian Air Force and spent decades in the public service, treated as just another number.

“He has always been in the service of Canada. He has served his country very loyally. He’s very proud to be a Canadian,” she said.

During the war, Sheardown flew numerous missions over Europe and once had to bail out over Britain, breaking both legs because of the low altitude.

“I remember I had to crawl a long way downhill to a pub. It was late and I banged on the door and the owner came out with a rifle. I said, ‘Don’t shoot, I’m a Canadian,’” the Windsor, Ont. native told visitors to his hospital room, adding with a smile that he still had to pay for his drink.

While the Sheardowns did not become household names like Ken Taylor after the Iranian hostage crisis, others remember him well —especially Taylor.

“John and Zena were very much part of the core of activity in Tehran, but on top of that John also shouldered a very demanding job as head of the immigration section, which loomed large at the time,” said Taylor.

Taylor will be in Ottawa for the reunion and plans to make time to visit Sheardown.

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The Americans had walked out of the U.S. Embassy before it was overrun by radical Iranian students. As the head of immigration, Sheardown was the point man for arranging for them to stay with him and Zena and the Taylors from November 1979 until January 1980, when they were spirited out of the country.

A senior person in then-prime minister Joe Clark’s office, who asked not to be named, recalled that it was Sheardown “who did all the work and Ken Taylor got all the credit.”

“We have relived it quite a lot (over the years) because we knew the danger we were in. They were shooting people right, left and centre,” said Zena Sheardown.

It was after Sheardown insisted that Zena be recognized that she became the first non-Canadian to receive honorary membership in Order of Canada in 1980. Once a citizen of Britain, she has since become a Canadian citizen.

It has often been said the daring rescue touched a nerve in the U.S. at a time when Americans were desperate for good news.

The grateful nation made a celebrity of Taylor, who reaped honours and awards across the U.S., including the keys to New York, where he would later become Canada’s consul-general.

Sheardown was also offered the keys to New York by then Mayor Edward Koch, but respectfully declined, saying Taylor had done do so on behalf of all who had helped out.

The Sheardowns’ scrapbooks are thick with letters of congratulations, from the likes of Joe Clark and Pierre Trudeau, along with newspaper clipping from those heady days.

“I know it’s a long time ago but in some ways it’s like yesterday,” Zena said.

Sheardown, the father of three children from a previous marriage, was admitted to Ottawa Civic Hospital after falling and breaking his hip. He has escaped twice using his walker or cane “because he wants to go home,” and is now in a locked ward.

“Just by virtue of being a Second World War veteran, you would think there would be a place for someone like that in his time of need,” Zena said. “I just want John to have a degree of dignity at the end of his life.”

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