SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The Marine Corps League Midwest Division hosted its spring conference in Sioux Falls, and welcomed a special guest to headline the event.
Retired Sergeant Rocky Sickmann of the U.S. Marine Corps spent 444 days in captivity during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. He was one of the 52 Americans detained by the Iranians at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
Sickmann was 22 years old at the time, working security for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Sickmann said he didn’t realize at the time that one of the rescue attempts at the time took the lives of eight people, something he said is what drives him to help other Marines, veterans, and first responders.
“It wasn’t until I came home that I realized that those eight individuals lost their lives trying to regain my freedom. As I tell everybody, every morning when I wake up, I earn each day in memory of those eight. Telling that story of how freedom is not free,” Sickmann said.
Sickmann now works with Folds of Honor, an organization that has provided 62,000 scholarships to the children and spouses of fallen and disabled military veterans and first responders.
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