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Family Members Reflect on Hostage Crisis Anniversary

Family members of those taken hostage in Iran reflected Wednesday, on the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

The crisis began on November 4, 1979 after Iranian militants stormed the US Embassy in Tehran.

"The first words out of my mouth, when my cousin called me, were a couple of cuss words," Elisa Wood, the ex-wife of a former hostage, says.  

Wood can't forget the day her ex-husband, Staff Sergeant Michael Moeller, was taken captive in Tehran.  "We knew it was a dangerous situation," she says.                

Iranian militants and Islamic students stormed the US Embassy where Moeller was stationed to protect it.

"They broke the doors down of the embassy and he was the first one standing in line," Wood says.

Many in Iran didn't like the close relationship between the Carter Administration and the Shah of Iran.

"We let the Shah into the U.S. that's what caused this," she says. The Shah was being treated for cancer. At that time, there was an anti-American movement in the country led by Ayatollah Khomeini.

As for Wood, she feared for her ex-husband's life.  "We never knew what they were going through. We didn't know where they were, because they kept moving," Wood says. She kept herself strong, trying to get information from the State Department and Marines.

But Wood says there was very little information coming out. She later learned the hostages were in five of Iran's notorious prisons.

"They had tortured them. They had stood them up in front of fake firing squads. They did Russian Roulette," Wood says.

There were numerous failed tries to free the hostages, but in 1980 when Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the presidential election, they were released after 444 days.

"I couldn't even begin to tell you the emotions. I was just like at that point it was just unbelievable," Wood says.