Guest Host, Alex McFarland, is joined by Kevin Hermening, running for a WI Congressional seat

Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

1. 0:00Darkness is not an affirmative force.
2. 0:02It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
3. 0:06This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
4. 0:10It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
5. 0:15Delivering people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
6. 0:18And the philosophies of this world.
7. 0:20God has called you and me to be His ambassador.
8. 0:23Even in this dark moment.
9. 0:26Let's not miss our moment.
10. 0:28and now the Hamilton Corner. Well the war with Iran has entered its second week and that might
11. 0:37seem like a long long time but how about 444 days? That's how long Kevin Hermanning was a hostage
12. 0:46in Iran 1.0. Hi Alex McFarland here welcome to the program so honored to be sitting in tonight for
13. 0:53attorney, pastor, broadcaster Abe Hamilton the third.
14. 0:58And you know, one of the great joys of whenever I sit in on the Hamilton corner,
15. 1:02we have the opportunity to interview a lot of newsmakers and thought leaders.
16. 1:07And tonight is just one of the most significant that I think I have ever been able to participate in.
17. 1:14Because I remember I was just a very, very young teenager.
18. 1:18In 1979, when the Shah of Iran was deposed and the Ayatollah Khomeini took up, I hesitate
19. 1:27to say leadership, I should say dictatorship of Iran.
20. 1:31And over the decades that have followed, I mean Islam and jihadism have been in the news,
21. 1:37pretty much every single day.
22. 1:39Many of you remember that and I remember, I will remember how when Ronald Reagan won the
23. 1:46election. And then on inauguration day, the hostages after more than a year were released.
24. 1:54Well, we're going to talk with one of the hostages back then, valiantly, faithfully, courageously
25. 2:01serving America. His name is Kevin Hermaning. And he has an amazing story. He's been interviewed
26. 2:07on Fox News and all the major national media. He's with us now. It's a profound honor to
27. 2:13speak with a truly great American hero, Kevin Herrmanning.
28. 2:17Welcome to the American Family Radio Network, sir.
29. 2:20Thank you.
30. 2:21It's a privilege for me to be here and hope to spend the next close to an hour talking
31. 2:25with you listening to and talking with your guests and you and maybe helping people not
32. 2:31have to open up a history book, give some context.
33. 2:35But yeah, I think we're going to cover a wide range of topics today for sure.
34. 2:40Sure.
35. 2:41So, you know, here we are in a conflict with Iran, and it's got to be kind of deja vu
36. 2:49and bringing back a lot of memories, maybe even some unpleasant memories, but two weeks
37. 2:55into the current war with Iran, I mean, what are your initial impressions?
38. 3:00Well, I do believe that our country needed to engage with Iran to prevent the Ayatollah
39. 3:10and the Muslims who lead that country in pursuing nuclear weapons, but more importantly, the ability
40. 3:18to deliver those weapons on a warhead, the delivery system that could launch chaos across
41. 3:26the Middle East to our allies up to Western Europe, Japan, and eventually, God forbid,
42. 3:34even to the United States, short-term wasn't going to happen.
43. 3:38But when I think about my own understanding and knowledge of history, I think about the
44. 3:44reality that we've seen some challenges occur in our past, such as Pearl Harbor, would have
45. 3:53been better off to have dealt with the possible attack on Pearl Harbor before it happened,
46. 4:00then have to be responsive to something that occurred afterward.
47. 4:04Proactivity.
48. 4:07So let's go back if you would and tell us about where you were in 1979 and how the events
49. 4:17that led to 444 days of captivity, set that up for us and walk us through that if you
50. 4:24would please.
51. 4:25Sure, yes sir.
52. 4:27Well earlier in the year I was an accountant for the Marine Corps serving in Okinawa, Japan
53. 4:32and I went to a movie on the base theater in Okinawa.
54. 4:37And as I walked into the theater, there was a huge life-size banner showing Marines and
55. 4:42dress blues uniforms standing in front of images, actual reality, photographs of Marines standing
56. 4:49in front of the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal standing on the Great Wall of China.
57. 4:54And it was an invitation to come to a meeting the following night in the same location on
58. 5:00that base theater to learn about the Marine Security Guard program, where our Marines
59. 5:05stand guard, stand duty at our embassies and our consulates and other diplomatic
60. 5:10missions across the globe. I went to the meeting and I was just enamored. They called
61. 5:13them recruiters for a reason, of course. And I went to work the next day and I asked my
62. 5:20boss if he would send me a letter of recommendation that I could submit with my
63. 5:23application to be a Marine Guard. I was accepted into the program. We started actually
64. 5:28with 179 Marines, men and women in my class, in our class, in Quantico, Virginia,
65. 5:35in May of 1979, about a three-month program, where we were going through training with the
66. 5:42Marine Corps, with the Department of State, we're just out in Washington, DC at that time.
67. 5:47We graduated with, graduated that program with only 121 Marines, though. Over a quarter dropped
68. 5:54out or were thrown out of the program before even being allowed to deploy overseas to one of our
69. 5:59embassies. I was actually assigned to the embassy in Germany. I was all excited to go there. I
70. 6:05had dreams and visions of seeing in the Alps every weekend and driving 100 miles an hour on the
71. 6:11Audubon. I came back to Milwaukee where I grew up. I bought an English to German, German to English
72. 6:20Dictionary, a map of Western Europe. I got back to the base ready to ship out over to Europe,
73. 6:28and the Sergeant Major called me into the office, and he said,
74. 6:31Sardon hermening, there's been a mistake. We accidentally assigned a Jewish Marine to go to this
75. 6:36country called Iran and you're going to take his place. I said, sir, I was a pretty good student
76. 6:41in high school, including in geography, but where's that? I mean, not today, that seems laughable,
77. 6:47but in 1979, Tehran, Iran was not a household name by any stretch of the imagination in the United
78. 6:53States. And I shipped out with three other Marines. It was my first and what turned out to be my
79. 6:58only Marine security guard assignment.
80. 7:02I loved being in the country of Iran,
81. 7:04the first 33 months that I was there, about 90 days or so,
82. 7:09traveling the country during my off time,
83. 7:13going out to the shopping area, the bazaar,
84. 7:17meeting with people.
85. 7:19Marine security guards still are required
86. 7:22to take three hours of language training every week
87. 7:25in the country in which they're working.
88. 7:27So I went to class five days a week for five hours to learn Farsi.
89. 7:31And if I was going to be there for at least a year,
90. 7:34I wanted to get to understand the culture, the people, the language better.
91. 7:40And so just I had done it in Japan.
92. 7:42I did the same thing in Tehran.
93. 7:46And then the protests began.
94. 7:49The protests because the Shah, it was being talked about that he was going
95. 7:54to be admitted into the United States for medical treatment.
96. 7:58As you said at the intro, he was deposed, but turned out to be maybe 11 months before
97. 8:04I, 10, 11 months before I got there.
98. 8:07And the Ayatollah and his followers, they were looking for red herring, if you will, something
99. 8:13to distract the Iranian people from what was really going on by their own leadership.
100. 8:19And that was that the promises made were not being delivered, which is often the case when
101. 8:23they are way out different than what the people are looking for. And what ended up occurring
102. 8:29was they were saying that the United States brought the shaw into the United States for medical
103. 8:34treatment because the US government was going to reinstall him back into power. Well, he
104. 8:41was very sick. In fact, he died just eight months after we were captured. But that was
105. 8:47their demand to bring him back. They wanted him to return the shaw to Iran to put him back.
106. 8:53put him on trial for what he was
107. 8:56to him of doing for the 26 years he was in power.
108. 8:59Had he not died in America.
109. 9:02Certainly he would have been executed.
110. 9:04He died in Egypt actually, about eight months later.
111. 9:08Because the Carter administration
112. 9:10believed that by pushing the shaw out of the United States,
113. 9:13it might bring an end to the crisis.
114. 9:16It didn't.
115. 9:18But this was a different time in history.
116. 9:21This was during the Cold War.
117. 9:23And the nation of Iran was very important to the United States
118. 9:27because Iran was a buffer between the Soviet Union,
119. 9:32just to the north of Iran, then Soviet Union,
120. 9:35and the Persian Gulf, access to a warm water port,
121. 9:39something the Soviets and the Russians
122. 9:40have been coveting for 100 years now.
123. 9:43And that's why the relationship between the Shah
124. 9:47and the United States was so important.
125. 9:49I don't want to get all Secretary of State kiss and drawn us here, but that's really a
126. 9:53big part of what was going on in our leadership in our country in our relations with Iran
127. 10:00during that quarter century.
128. 10:01The Shah was there.
129. 10:04Had he been returned to Iran, certainly he would have been executed.
130. 10:09Don't you think?
131. 10:11Without a doubt.
132. 10:14But the, I mean, the Shaw had his many flaws and shortcomings, like many leaders do.
133. 10:22Civil leaders are not Christ, right?
134. 10:26And so I hope we have an opportunity during today's show to talk about my, my coming to
135. 10:32faith and my being born again and my salvation because that is an important part of my life
136. 10:38journey.
137. 10:39Amen.
138. 10:40not to be trite or superficial, but in a way we're all held hostage to sin until the great
139. 10:49liberator, the great Savior, the one and only Messiah Jesus sets us free. And so it's an
140. 10:58apt illustration and I want to hear that. I remember this because Kevin, I asked my parents
141. 11:06And I would have been, oh, I don't know, 12 or 13, suddenly,
142. 11:10I mean, none of us had ever heard of Islam.
143. 11:13And then it was front page news like every day forever.
144. 11:19You know, and I think it's important because history must be taught and passed
145. 11:27on because history and the lessons of history are very important to preserve.
146. 11:32I truly believe.
147. 11:33And do you know, let me ask you this, being stationed in Iran and you're learning the
148. 11:41language, you're getting a feel, you go into the market, when did you, in the air, did you
149. 11:48sense that, you know, there was danger and things were escalating and you and your colleagues
150. 11:56were not really safe.
151. 11:57Well, you know, as a young Marine trained, right, for conflict, it was a little bit different
152. 12:06for Marine security guards because, yes, of course, we are still Marines and yes, we operate
153. 12:11fully under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense, now Department of War.
154. 12:18But we have a dual responsibility because we also follow the orders of those people in
155. 12:25the Department of State or in our case the charge and affairs or acting ambassador.
156. 12:30And on November 4, 1979, what began is just one more of the two or three-week demonstrations
157. 12:37that we had become accustomed to once the shaw was admitted in the United States, the
158. 12:42burning of the American flag, the burning of effigies of President Jimmy Carter, the chanting
159. 12:47in the streets death to America, Yankee go home, turned a lot uglier when suddenly they began
160. 12:53and smashing through the front gates.
161. 12:55They climbed over the eight foot concrete walls.
162. 12:59They came to have a sit-in, but the Iran emotion
163. 13:05that the Iranians, the young Iranians, mostly supported
164. 13:08eventually that afternoon by the Iranian army.
165. 13:13This fervor that they felt suddenly caused them
166. 13:16to break into the apartments in which some of the Marines
167. 13:20who had been on the third shift the night before
168. 13:23were sleeping, they were among the first Americans captured,
169. 13:26they broke into the consulate,
170. 13:29and ultimately they found their way,
171. 13:31they got into the main chancellery building
172. 13:35where the majority of the Americans were
173. 13:37that Sunday morning, November 4th, 1979.
174. 13:41I was not on duty that day,
175. 13:43but I happened to be in the building.
176. 13:46But when Marine guards were not on duty,
177. 13:48we were required to wear a suit and tie.
178. 13:50And so I had my short cropped hair,
179. 13:53my suit and tie on and purely by accident, purely by chance.
180. 13:59I found myself in the communications vault
181. 14:02as the embassy was under siege eventually,
182. 14:06as we were about to open the main door
183. 14:10to the second floor where we had all retreated to,
184. 14:15just awaiting orders from the ambassador,
185. 14:18praying and hoping that the Iranian government
186. 14:20was going to do its job under international law
187. 14:23for a millennia.
188. 14:25Adversaries always afforded safe harbor and passage
189. 14:29to diplomats, looking to negotiate an end to conflict, right?
190. 14:33This is not at all what happened though,
191. 14:35that the Iranian government engaged
192. 14:38in the capture of the Americans.
193. 14:40But I found myself at the end of the hallway
194. 14:43all the way at the far end of the building
195. 14:45in the communications.
196. 14:46Forgive me, Kevin, forgive me.
197. 14:48We've got to take a break.
198. 14:49Alex McFarlane here, we're talking with Kevin Hermaning,
199. 14:53decorated veteran, and one of the Iranian hostages in 1979.
200. 14:57Stay tuned, a break, and then we're back.
201. 15:00Okay, this is crazy, and I can't believe it even has to be said.
202. 15:03But only US citizens should vote in US elections.
203. 15:07It's common sense, but Republican Senator John Foon
204. 15:10and some of his fellow senators aren't sure
205. 15:12if they want to vote to pass HR 22, also known as the SAVE Act.
206. 15:17It requires proof of U.S. citizenship and a valid voter ID to register and vote in federal elections.
207. 15:23Join us in calling on our senators to support and pass the SAVE Act.
208. 15:27Visit AFA.net today.
209. 15:34Shining light into the darkness, this is the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio.
210. 15:41Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here. We're talking with Kevin
211. 15:45Hermanning. You've perhaps seen him interviewed by Brian Kilmeade on Fox News and
212. 15:51Harris Faulkner on Fox News as well. He is a certified financial planner, a leader in his community.
213. 15:59He gives a presentation called Liberty and Leadership, and he talks about this period of history that
214. 16:06it was in the news ubiquitously. Well, he was there living it out the 440 days at the US Embassy in
215. 16:14in Iran from 1979 to 1981 after Islamic terrorist captured the entire diplomatic staff and the
216. 16:23hostages were captured after the shot of Iran entered the U.S. for medical care. But they
217. 16:30were free January 20, 1981 inauguration day under President Ronald Reagan. I remember
218. 16:38it well. I've thought about it countless numbers of times and it really is a privilege to hear
219. 16:43it from one of the first hand. I'm not going to say first-hand participants, I would say
220. 16:48victims, but Kevin, Herman, I want to thank you for being with us today, but I want to even
221. 16:54more so thank you for serving God and country as you have and as you do. I sincerely mean
222. 17:01it's privileged to speak with you, sir.
223. 17:04Thank you very much. Thank you.
224. 17:06Before the break, you were talking about international law and diplomatic relations, but as as a
225. 17:13as the terrorist stormed the embassy
226. 17:18and even people's living quarters,
227. 17:20none of the protocols or the humane protocols
228. 17:25were followed, were they?
229. 17:29Definitely not.
230. 17:30And I would just kind of wrap up the statement
231. 17:33or two about the actual takeover of the embassy
232. 17:37because Marine security guards, as I said,
233. 17:40receive orders from the Department of Defense
234. 17:43and the Department of State.
235. 17:44And Marine security guards in that important responsibility
236. 17:49are there to diffuse chaos, right?
237. 17:51To manage threats to American lives
238. 17:55or American equipment and buildings.
239. 17:58But the ambassador ordered us to lay down our weapons
240. 18:01knowing that there were literally 12 Marines,
241. 18:04only four of whom were in the main building
242. 18:07with our shotguns and pistols.
243. 18:09And that was it, there were no automatic weapons.
244. 18:11We weren't prepared for a large assault on the building, for sure.
245. 18:16But I was 20 years old and I didn't have a wife or children at home to worry about.
246. 18:26As a Marine, I was trained, but not for captivity.
247. 18:30I was a very frightening time, but it was also exciting as a young Marine.
248. 18:38And in the middle of a revolution, right?
249. 18:40I was thinking this was history because we didn't think it was going to last this long.
250. 18:46But we thought the Iranian government would do this job and they didn't.
251. 18:49Well, immediately after we were captured, one of the guys who was in the vault with me named
252. 18:56Tom Ahern, his position at the embassy was declassified last year.
253. 19:01He was our nation's CIA station chief at the embassy.
254. 19:05And Tom got to know the leaders of Iran when the Shah was there and the leaders of Iran
255. 19:10after the Shah was gone and the Ayatollah took over.
256. 19:13He was doing his job.
257. 19:14He was just gathering information so that policymakers back in the United States could
258. 19:19make good decisions or better decisions for sure, as was the role for all the other diplomats.
259. 19:24But Tommy Hern spent 425 days in solitary confinement, which had to be just horrendous.
260. 19:32Not knowing was he the only one left behind.
261. 19:33I spent 43 days in solitary confinement, which was nothing compared to him.
262. 19:38I tried to escape and failed, and I spent those six weeks in a small five by 10 foot size room
263. 19:45laying on a box spring.
264. 19:47But men like United States Army Colonel Charles Scott, who was interrogated so severely with
265. 19:57rubber hoses beaten around the mouth, that three of his teeth were broken off at the gum
266. 20:02no medical or dental treatment until we were freed 14 months later.
267. 20:07And lastly, I give you the example of a roommate of mine.
268. 20:11We, he and I spent six months together from about the middle of the crisis until just before Christmas, 1980, our second Christmas in captivity.
269. 20:20Guy by the name of Bill Keoh from Boston, he had three kids my age, he was the age of my dad.
270. 20:28We were roommates, by then things had begun to relax a little bit.
271. 20:33We were able to talk to one another.
272. 20:35We were able to talk about the future.
273. 20:38Because he was an educator, he was an encourager.
274. 20:42He would always talk to me like he would talk to his children.
275. 20:46When we get out of here, he never said if.
276. 20:48He said when we get out of here, Kevin, pursue your education, get involved in your community
277. 20:54and build a life of relevance.
278. 20:57the ultimate conversation about building a,
279. 20:59or pursuing a bucket list before I had even heard the phrase.
280. 21:03But it's important to have mentors and leaders.
281. 21:07And I've tried to play that role for other people now
282. 21:10in my life over the last 40 years.
283. 21:12But I hope that people, I hope Bill Keough, by the way,
284. 21:18he was a six foot nine inch tall guy
285. 21:20when we were captured Wayne 350 pounds.
286. 21:22He lost 200 pounds of his body weight while we were there.
287. 21:26and the guards would never bring in a doctor,
288. 21:28even though we begged them to, never took to a clinic.
289. 21:31He died less than two years after we got out of captivity
290. 21:34of Lou Gehrig's disease and just a real travesty.
291. 21:40So did you have any communication with Washington
292. 21:43or the Pentagon or when you were in captivity,
293. 21:47did you have any means to communicate with DC?
294. 21:52No, we were spread out into very small groups
295. 21:55or in solitary confinement.
296. 21:57Many people spend time in solitary confinement.
297. 21:59There was no communication from inside
298. 22:03to our government or outside,
299. 22:06meaning from our government back into us.
300. 22:08I think I received four or five letters from my mom
301. 22:12and my dad while we were there.
302. 22:15They only received a handful from me.
303. 22:17And the correspondence was heavily edited.
304. 22:20They tore pieces out of it
305. 22:21and take the letter back together
306. 22:23without those pieces in it.
307. 22:25Because of course, our family members wanted to let us know
308. 22:27what was going on, but that was all taken out.
309. 22:29So I learned a lot about the Milwaukee Brewers
310. 22:31and the Milwaukee Bucks and the Green Bay Packers
311. 22:34and the high school I graduated from,
312. 22:37but nothing of real substance that I was really interested in.
313. 22:40But there was an effort, by the way.
314. 22:43We didn't learn about this from our government.
315. 22:46It was accidentally discovered in June of 1980,
316. 22:51that six weeks earlier, there had been an escape, I'm sorry, a rescue mission. There was a rescue mission
317. 23:00called Operation Eagle Claw. But unfortunately, because there was a mechanical failure with one
318. 23:05of the helicopters that was coming to Tehran, they stopped for refueling at Desert 1 200 miles south
319. 23:13of Tehran. And when it was determined, they didn't have enough gear to come up and get us,
320. 23:19They were going to abort the mission that night.
321. 23:21And the commander, Colonel Charlie Beckwith,
322. 23:24he got on the satellite phone with President Jimmy Carter back in DC.
323. 23:28And they made the decision the president did to extract the team,
324. 23:35go back to the Persian Gulf, the aircraft carriers,
325. 23:37the country of Oman and the bases there,
326. 23:40and maybe try it a different night.
327. 23:42Well, as they were leaving,
328. 23:44there was a terrible accident.
329. 23:46one of the helicopters collided with the C-130 transport plane sitting on the desert floor full
330. 23:52of aircraft fuel and it resulted in an explosion that could be seen 20 miles away through the midnight
331. 23:59sky and three Marines and five airmen that night selflessly gave their lives.
332. 24:08So that we might have had a chance to be free and we didn't learn about that right away.
333. 24:12And we wondered every day before that whether the government was doing anything to get us out and
334. 24:19although the team failed in their actual mission to free us early
335. 24:24they succeeded
336. 24:26eventually in the Iranians slipping up in a conversation with some of us and
337. 24:31Told us that this mission had happened and that's what gave us encouragement to endeavor forward and not give up hope
338. 24:39That our government was working to free us
339. 24:41That's something had been tried.
340. 24:43I remember that.
341. 24:44I remember that in the news.
342. 24:45Let me ask you this.
343. 24:46Who, when you said in a previous segment that you were told, you were part of the Marine
344. 24:53Security Guard, but you were told to lay down your arms and basically not even really defend
345. 25:00yourselves, who gave that order?
346. 25:03When we did use our tear gas to postpone the entry of the Iranians into the building, it
347. 25:12gave us an extra four hours, two hours to delay them coming into the building and an additional
348. 25:19two hours from being able to get in the vault so that a lot of the communications equipment,
349. 25:24the documents that identified people who were talking about current leadership, future potential
350. 25:31leadership in Iran, you know, what the size of their military was, all these things that
351. 25:36you want to know as a government, that's what embassies are for, but also for cultural exchange,
352. 25:43educational resources, that type of thing. And then the normal things like helping Americans
353. 25:48who lost their passport, for example, that would all be important. And so just trying to
354. 25:54delay the Iranians from getting into that location. But the decision ultimately was made
355. 25:59by Bruce Lang and the ambassador, who by the way, I just have to say that every night, whenever
356. 26:09he would go up to his room in his residence, there was always a Marine Guard at the base
357. 26:16of the stairwell. And he would come over at the end of the evening and he would lean against
358. 26:20the wall and he would ask us how our day was, you know, we 20, 21, 22 year old Marines. And
359. 26:26And then as he was about to go, he would stop on the landing on the way upstairs and he would
360. 26:31look down and he said to me and others, he said, now write your mom, write a letter to
361. 26:36your mom.
362. 26:38And he knew that the Marine Guards were halfway across the globe in a foreign land and a place
363. 26:44that wasn't familiar.
364. 26:45Yeah, we all had a little bit of homesickness, but he was a real important guy.
365. 26:51And I had the distinct honor and privilege of eulogizing him a couple of years ago.
366. 26:57He told his sons, all of whom were in U.S. Naval Academy grads, and they called me after
367. 27:04their dad passed.
368. 27:06And after I expressed my condolences, they said, my dad for 35 years told us that when
369. 27:13he dies, Kevin, he wants you to come eulogize him, which was just an incredible honor for
370. 27:18me to be able to do that, spend time with the family.
371. 27:22Now, where were I know famously it was Terry Wait, who met, I think he might have been
372. 27:32originally from Ireland, but where were the other hostages?
373. 27:38You all were in the embassy.
374. 27:40Was everyone in the embassy or were they in several locations?
375. 27:43Yeah, so of course that situation was different than ours.
376. 27:46There have been a lot of hostage-takings by the Iranians, a lot of expansion of terrorist
377. 27:54behavior, development of IEDs that they laid down in opposition to our efforts in Afghanistan,
378. 28:04Iraq, and we can go on and on with their other organizations.
379. 28:10They supported Hezbollah and Hamas and the Houthi rebels, right, and ISIS and all of this.
380. 28:16But we spent the first couple of weeks on the embassy grounds, and then many of us were
381. 28:23dispersed across the city of Tehran, brought back to the embassy mostly, and then once the
382. 28:31rescue mission happened but failed, they dispersed us all across the country for between six
383. 28:37and eight months.
384. 28:39And that was an effort to make it almost impossible for there to be a second future, but successful
385. 28:46whole rescue mission. And sometimes people spend time in
386. 28:50salary or get solitary confinement. I would say the most
387. 28:54that anybody knows member of people in a single room were
388. 28:57four or five, depending on which grouping. I never saw any of
389. 29:02my fellow Marines until the very last 30 days that we were in
390. 29:06captivity, because I wasn't captured with the other Marines. I
391. 29:10wasn't captured in uniform. I was captured in a different place
392. 29:14in a suit and tie in the communications vault and we all had bad treatment but many had worse
393. 29:22certainly than me and also you mentioned something earlier I was thinking about coming back to
394. 29:27and that was just referencing I don't want to get ahead of ourselves in the discussion but
395. 29:32the eventual release. Yeah you know I think being young being young and then trying to reintegrate
396. 29:39into freedom in society is a little bit easier when you are young.
397. 29:44And the Marines did an incredible job, at least for me,
398. 29:48in, I still had eight months left in the Marine Corps
399. 29:51once we got out of captivity.
400. 29:53They weren't gonna train me a new job.
401. 29:55I wanted to get out and go to college,
402. 29:57which I did when my full four year term ended.
403. 30:00But they put me on the road, not as a recruiter,
404. 30:03but in public affairs.
405. 30:05And I spoke in high schools into rotary clubs
406. 30:08and church groups and organizations that wanted to learn
407. 30:12about the most recent important historical event
408. 30:15that gripped the United States for a year and a quarter.
409. 30:19And that became my catharsis, talking about it
410. 30:24and talking about others and their difficult situations
411. 30:28helped me more quickly heal from the trauma
412. 30:32of having gone through that.
413. 30:34Were you aware that Jimmy Carter ultimately would face Ronald Reagan in the election?
414. 30:41And were you aware about the rather intense political campaigns going on back in America?
415. 30:49Where, and again, I lived it. I remember it with every passing day Jimmy Carter looked more
416. 30:56impotent and Reagan looked. Now, I know the left they were saying, oh, you know, it'll be World
417. 31:02War Three and they, you know, sarcastically called Ronald Reagan, Ronnie Ray Gunn, because
418. 31:10in the media, and I saw this the night it was on when during one of the debates, Jimmy
419. 31:16Carter said, you know, if we could talk, we're all, we're all people of good faith.
420. 31:21We just need to sit down and talk.
421. 31:23And Reagan looked in the camera and he said, you listen to me, Mr. Ayatollah, if I become
422. 31:29the president, I will mop the floor with you. That's what he said. And now we've got a
423. 31:36breath. I want your response to this before we take a brief break, Kevin, do you have
424. 31:40a book? What's your website website? It's Kevin Hermaning dot com. Kevin Herman. We're also
425. 31:46on Facebook and the other social media platforms. Kevin Hermaning for Congress on Facebook.
426. 31:51Love to have your listeners join in with our campaign.
427. 31:55Folks, Alex McFarlane here from the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, Kevin Herrmaning and
428. 32:02a great American.
429. 32:04You can listen again at aFR.net.
430. 32:06I would encourage you to share this with friends and all the great programming, a brief break
431. 32:11and more in our conversation with Kevin Herrmaning after this.
432. 32:14Stay tuned.
433. 32:29Heavenbound Ministries presents a live 2026.
434. 32:33March 9th through the 11th in Houston, Mississippi.
435. 32:36with comedian JD Long. Enjoy great gospel singing with the hoppers, Gold City, and more.
436. 32:46Enrich your walk with God with speakers like Dr. Fred Luder and Pastor Alan Simpson to name a few.
437. 32:52Two meals are included and lodging is available. Go to senioradultretreats.com for more information
438. 32:58on a live 2026. Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Bitted Common Terrets are available at
439. 33:08AFR.net back to the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. Welcome back to the program.
440. 33:17Alex McFarland here. Very honored to have you listening deeply honored to be speaking with Kevin
441. 33:22Hermanning. And before we resume that conversation, let me ask you to please be aware of and be in
442. 33:28prayer for several things coming up. For those that are in the mid Atlantic region, March 21 and 22,
443. 33:35I will be at Emerald Isle, Chappell by the Sea, and we're going to Kansas.
444. 33:41I'll be in San Angelo, Texas later this year.
445. 33:45And my tour schedule is at AlexMcFarlane.com.
446. 33:49Just my name, spell like it sounds, AlexMcFarlane.com.
447. 33:52And a couple of things that I want to invite you to.
448. 33:56One is the Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center in Western North Carolina.
449. 34:00I've got the great privilege of speaking there twice in July, July 17th through 9th
450. 34:05I'll be teaching on Daniel and Revelation and Bible Prophecy.
451. 34:10We have a brand new book out on the questions most asked about Bible prophecy.
452. 34:16So the website is the Cove.org.
453. 34:18T-H-E-C-O-V-E, the Billy Graham Training Center.
454. 34:23It's a conference center in Asheville, North Carolina.
455. 34:26It's just fantastic.
456. 34:27And every year we meet people from literally around the world that come to study God's Word.
457. 34:34Then after the July 17th through 19, I'll be back a week later, July 27 through 31, with
458. 34:44Gary Habermas doing apologetics, the evidence for the Bible, the Christian faith.
459. 34:50We would encourage you to come to that and you can learn to share your faith confidently
460. 34:54in any situation.
461. 34:56And so check out the website of the Cove.
462. 34:59And then finally, I would ask you to pray for our youth camps.
463. 35:02We have eight summer youth camps and the website for the youth camps is equipretreat.org.
464. 35:10And we've been doing this for 27 years.
465. 35:12We'll have almost 2,000 teenagers, middle school, high schoolers.
466. 35:17We do all the fun camp stuff.
467. 35:19We hike.
468. 35:20We horseback ride, but we share the gospel.
469. 35:23And last year we saw hundreds and hundreds of young people not only put their faith in
470. 35:28Christ and become believers, but we talk about America. We talk about patriotism. We talk about
471. 35:35citizenship. And so the equip retreats, we just believe are a life-changing event. We've got a new
472. 35:41one in my home state of North Carolina, up in the mountains, Brevard, North Carolina. We're in Montana,
473. 35:48upstate New Jersey, the Hudson River Valley, all over America. So please pray, promote, and equip
474. 35:56retreat.org is the website for our youth camps. Well, I am so honored. I get to speak with so many
475. 36:04fascinating people and with all my heart I am grateful for the service to our nation of Kevin
476. 36:11Hermanning. He's with us now and serve for those that may just be tuning in. Give the brief bio
477. 36:20any website you would care to share and then I've got a few more things I want to ask you about
478. 36:24your experiences as a hostage in Iran, but we welcome back to the Mike Kevin Hermaning.
479. 36:30Well, thank you very much. I was a young 20-year-old Marine at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November
480. 36:36of 1979 when Islamic fundamentalists loyal to the Ayatollah Khomeini invaded the embassy compound,
481. 36:45eventually invading the buildings, capturing us, the ambassador ordering us to lay down our
482. 36:51weapons in the hopes and belief that under international law, Iranian government would
483. 36:56do its job to come and protect the embassy, the personnel, and the diplomats and Marines
484. 37:01who worked there. That's not how it worked out, of course. We were held prisoner for 444 days,
485. 37:07hostage by the Ayatollah and his followers. Since then, I returned to the United States.
486. 37:12I got out of the service. I did serve a toll of 13 years in the active duty and active reserves
487. 37:19in the Marine Corps. Thank you.
488. 37:21And I went on to college.
489. 37:22Thank you.
490. 37:22I went on to college, got a business degree
491. 37:24with an emphasis in economics.
492. 37:26And at the age of 60, just a few years ago,
493. 37:28went back to college and got my MBA in MBA and applied leadership
494. 37:33and decision making, which has really served me well,
495. 37:36as I am now able to teach at the local university
496. 37:40as a adjunct professor.
497. 37:42I teach financial planning, which is my career.
498. 37:44Also, the class I teach at upper level
499. 37:47to undergrads and every junior and senior,
500. 37:51every person getting out of college
501. 37:53should have at least a fundamental understanding
502. 37:55of finances and financial advising and planning.
503. 37:58But I'm also, I've been very active in my community,
504. 38:02serving on a few boards, privileged to ask to do that,
505. 38:05supporters of, supporter of junior achievement,
506. 38:08my late wife and I, we were very active
507. 38:10with the Honor Flight Program sending our veterans
508. 38:14to DC to see their memorials.
509. 38:17And I also do serve, I think this is relevant.
510. 38:22I serve as the treasurer of the Child Evangelism Fellowship
511. 38:27Organization at the state level in Wisconsin on the state board.
512. 38:31Hey, man.
513. 38:32Yeah, Ken, I used to be on our U.
514. 38:34We love CEF for many years.
515. 38:38In fact, my wife became a Christian in third grade
516. 38:42grade through the Good News Clubs of CEF. And in college she was very responsible for me
517. 38:48getting under the sound of the gospel and becoming a Christian. Listen, I knew I liked
518. 38:53you anyway, but now when you bring up Child Evangelism Fellowship, I feel like family, sir.
519. 39:00So blessings on you. Well, my own faith, I mean, I grew up in a Catholic family, Catholic church,
520. 39:08I was the boy youth leader, my best friend Michelle Galvin was the girl youth leader at
521. 39:13our church, but I would say that the real genesis of my faith ultimately my salvation about nine
522. 39:20ten years after we got out of captivity occurred when I was in solitary confinement and I had
523. 39:25to get down on my knees and pray to God every day that he would deliver me from captivity,
524. 39:30not knowing and fully comprehending that I also needed to get down on my knees and pray to God
525. 39:36to save me from my sin, right? You can't avoid sin as a mere mortal, but you can work to be a
526. 39:43better person, but that's not the way you get to heaven. It's by having that saving knowledge of
527. 39:49faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior. Amen. I've got to ask you because, you know,
528. 39:56solitary confinement is so psychologically crippling and the effects of solitary confinement
529. 40:04sometimes or just irreversible. How important was it to have hope? And as no doubt as you cried
530. 40:13out to God for his presence and deliverance, I mean, how did you keep some thread of hope alive in your
531. 40:23heart during those days, Kevin? Well, this is a God story because there used to be about 20,000
532. 40:34Americans working and living around Tehran about a year before we were captured. Of course,
533. 40:39the Shah was in power, our strong ally of our country. I wasn't there then, but I know it's real
534. 40:45what I just told you. As a result, there are a lot of kids attending the Tehran American school.
535. 40:51And while I was in solitary confinement, the Iranian guards, one day they pushed a book cart
536. 40:58down the hallway and they stopped it around two in the morning in front of my cell. And
537. 41:02And they grabbed me and told me to come out and get two books off the bookshelf.
538. 41:09And it was pretty dark.
539. 41:10I had no idea what I was taking off the shelf, but the first book on the top shelf I pulled
540. 41:15was a very thick book.
541. 41:18And the other book I grabbed was a little thinner on the bottom shelf.
542. 41:21I got back into my room and I looked at the first book and it was a 1250 page version
543. 41:28of Tolstoy's War in Peace.
544. 41:31you should never read in a situation like the one I found myself in. Oh my goodness. Not the most
545. 41:35uplifting book for sure. But the other book, there was a woman from California who made a decision
546. 41:44to send 52 Bibles to Tehran with the hopes they would make their hands, their way into the hands of
547. 41:52the hostages. And the book that I grabbed off the bottom shelf was a Bible inscribed on the inside
548. 42:01front cover, it said, to hostage number 26. As a result, I became hostage to 26 because I had
549. 42:08that Bible. And I read it in solitary confinement four times from cover to cover and I have to confess.
550. 42:16I didn't really know and understand everything that was in that Bible, but I really, you know,
551. 42:21you know, sat down and I wish then that I was already cognizant of a saving relationship
552. 42:31to Christ because I even earlier would have understood the importance of continuing to
553. 42:36serve, especially in civil government. I mean, that's what Romans is all about. That's what
554. 42:42I think it's hacked three talks about the importance of engaging in civil government.
555. 42:48I am a candidate running for Congress to try to make a difference. I'm not trying to be somebody. I already have a career
556. 42:54already built my life the life of relevance that Bill Keough talked to me about in that cell we were sharing
557. 43:0047 years ago, but
558. 43:03This is a way that I can continue to serve should I be so honored to be elected by the people of northern Wisconsin?
559. 43:10Indeed, by the way, what's your website for your senatorial candidacy?
560. 43:15Yeah, congressional. It's a house not Senate. Oh, I'm sorry. Kevin. That's okay. Kevin hermening.com
561. 43:21would be the website. Sure. Sure. Well, our prayers are with you in that regard. I've got to ask you,
562. 43:27do you still have that Bible? I still have that Bible. And while I had that Bible in solitary,
563. 43:35I circled parts of it. I underlined other things. It became pretty dog ear to even in such a short,
564. 43:43It's a seven-week period of time in solitary confinement,
565. 43:46but I used it through the rest of the crisis as well.
566. 43:50I've taken it with me when I speak to church groups
567. 43:53and boy scout groups because I want them to see
568. 43:56what's really important.
569. 43:59I feel I've been given a second chance at life.
570. 44:01Obviously, I am well aware, as are you,
571. 44:04as are most of your listeners,
572. 44:06that God had this whole thing laid out
573. 44:10long before any of us were here ourselves.
574. 44:12and he knows the outcome of everything.
575. 44:16I just wish I knew with the outcome once we were captured,
576. 44:19how long it was gonna take to get out of there,
577. 44:21but just trying to give encouragement to people
578. 44:25who today find themselves in difficult times.
579. 44:28I mean, I'm a bowler, among other things
580. 44:31that I do in my community.
581. 44:33I was at Bowling League last night,
582. 44:36and one of my buddies was just not his chipper self,
583. 44:39And I went up to him and I asked him what was going on.
584. 44:42And he started and he knows my background.
585. 44:45And he said, my son is in a harm's way right now.
586. 44:49And we said a real brief prayer because it was his turn to ball.
587. 44:54I said, I will every day be thinking about you and your family
588. 44:58and your son that God delivers him back to safety
589. 45:01in the United States real soon coming out of harm's way.
590. 45:05And that's all that we all really want, right?
591. 45:07We want to see regime change.
592. 45:10We want to see the Iranians pursue their own version
593. 45:13of a liberal democracy.
594. 45:14It's not going to look like ours in the United States.
595. 45:17But what's going on over there already affects us here.
596. 45:21Higher gas prices, higher grocery bills,
597. 45:24supply chain interruptions.
598. 45:26And people here, what are they concerned about?
599. 45:29Here, the same thing is where you are.
600. 45:31I heard you mentioned South North Carolina.
601. 45:33I'm going to be in Sanford, North Carolina
602. 45:35in just a couple of weeks on April 11th,
603. 45:37going to an event down there.
604. 45:39It's not in my district,
605. 45:40but I was invited down by a political organization
606. 45:43and so I'm gonna go down there and speak to the folks.
607. 45:45And maybe raise a little bit of money for my campaign.
608. 45:48That's not the purpose, maybe that'll result.
609. 45:52But people are concerned about the same thing everywhere.
610. 45:55Taking care of their families,
611. 45:57I'm a financial advisor, I sit with people every day
612. 46:00who are worried about the stock market,
613. 46:02they're worried about interest rates,
614. 46:03they're worried about whether they have enough
615. 46:05money to pay for housing, health care, and property taxes, and groceries. And health
616. 46:10care really is a big issue for the rest of their lives. They don't want to run out of
617. 46:14money and be dependent on government social security only, because even that is up in
618. 46:19the air right now. People are really afraid of what might happen to them based on government
619. 46:24malfeasance. And yes, we're all sinners. Unfortunately, not too many people in government
620. 46:31have a financial degree of expertise, and there aren't as many Christians in government as
621. 46:39I would like to see and probably you as well.
622. 46:42You know, exactly.
623. 46:44We do encourage Christians to run for office, you know, regrettably we're almost out of time,
624. 46:50but I've got to ask you this.
625. 46:51How did you get the news that you were going to be released there in January of 81?
626. 46:56Inauguration, Dabley, it was January 20th of 81.
627. 47:00How did you find out about that and how did the release play out?
628. 47:07Well, you know, there were a lot of mind games being played by the Iranians during the entirety
629. 47:12of the crisis.
630. 47:13They would always come in and tell us that it looked like we'd be freed soon.
631. 47:18Negotiations were going well for the eventual release.
632. 47:22And we know it was really an effort to try to control us and not give us a sense of desperation.
633. 47:29I came in a couple days before inauguration day.
634. 47:32We did try to keep a calendar,
635. 47:35kind of a diary calendar of our own in our room
636. 47:37or individually.
637. 47:38I kept my own as well.
638. 47:40And I still have that.
639. 47:41It's interesting to look back at it every now and then
640. 47:44and all the things I wrote down that I wanted to do
641. 47:46when I got back and to be blunt.
642. 47:49I did do about a third of them.
643. 47:51The other third of them,
644. 47:52I'm just not physically capable of doing anymore.
645. 47:55And the others I just shouldn't ever have even put on my list.
646. 47:58but that's what young men of 20 years of age do.
647. 48:02But we were very fearful of the future
648. 48:06and they were playing that mind game,
649. 48:07but we knew it was inauguration
650. 48:09and they started acting a little bit spunky.
651. 48:11And so that morning, well, really,
652. 48:15the night before they came into our room
653. 48:17and told us it looks like you're gonna go home tomorrow.
654. 48:20And we thought, yeah, sure we are.
655. 48:22We're almost out of time.
656. 48:23I beg your givers.
657. 48:25We must resume this conversation.
658. 48:26Kevin Hermaning is at dot com.
659. 48:30Kevin Hermaning dot com.
660. 48:31Yes, sir.
661. 48:32Well, our thanks and prayers and thanks for being with us
662. 48:35tonight, folks.
663. 48:36Share this with somebody.
664. 48:37And may God bless America.
665. 48:40The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast
666. 48:42may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family
667. 48:45Association or American Family Radio.