February 1st, 1979

The dreaded day has come. The Ayatollah Khomeini triumphantly returned to Iran today – from all news reports I have heard, he apparently was very warmly welcomed by his followers. Apparently, the people in the streets of Tehran were jubilant – not full of the usual protesters.

Khomeini is already making a pledge to overthrow the Bakhtiar government. He has been very threatening to Americans – the United States is being called the “Great Satan”. And still that idiot of a president, Jimmy Carter, leaves our men there. Now that the Shah has left, there is absolutely no reason for the American military presence – from the beginning Khomeini has made it very apparent he no longer wants us in the country. From what all the wives are hearing, our husbands not accomplishing anything as there is nothing for them to do. I am beginning to believe that President Carter has absolutely no idea of how to handle this situation.

Knowing that the Ayatollah was returning today, last night was an extremely long and sleepless night – I think I listened to every newscast from 2:30AM on. I found myself just frantic and was worried sick about what was going to happen once Khomeini’s plane landed. Thank heavens, today has ended up being peaceful. However, most of believe that it won’t be long before the honeymoon is over. We then all predict civil war will break out. All we can hope for is that all the Americans will be out within a week or two. We also believe that evacuation is inevitable – that our government has waited too long – that it is going to be hard for the military to just hop on a plane and leave.

However, we are one very fortunate family. LC will be home within the next few days! I got a call from the military help desk this morning saying he is definitely on the list and will leave Tehran tomorrow morning. The person went on to promise to call me as soon as LC’s plane clears Iranian air space. I am so excited that I can hardly sit still although I hate to get my hopes up too high just in case something changes at the last minute.

Unfortunately about the same time we got our good news, another family was getting the type of news we have all been dreading. The father of a friend of Cathie’s was killed over there yesterday in a plane accident. From all reports, it had nothing to do with the Iranian situation.

My heart goes out to the family – they have already gone through so much, and now they have to face this. They really did lose just about everything, and I can only hope and pray that they will be looked out for. I know all of us who shared this experience have the family in our hearts and prayers.