He’d been shot in the face, tortured for a week, convicted of murder in a ten-minute trial, and sentenced to death. He had two days to live when they released him.
Feb. 14, 1979. Valentine’s Day. U.S. Embassy, Tehran, Iran.
Sergeant Kenneth Kraus was a 22-year-old Marine embassy guard when militants stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Tehran. In the chaos, Kraus armed himself with a shotgun, cornered one of the attackers, and forced him at gunpoint to release the civilians trapped inside. He was shot in the process — a round ricocheted off the floor and struck him in the face, chest, and neck. Wounded, he was captured.
For the next week he was held in an Iranian prison — beaten with rifle butts when he refused to sign anti-American documents, interrogated, and tortured for intelligence on the embassy. On Feb. 20, a ten-minute kangaroo court convicted him of murder and sentenced him to death. The execution was set for Feb. 22.
On Feb. 21, President Jimmy Carter and Ambassador William Sullivan secured his release. He was handed over at the embassy and flown home via Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
Sergeant Kraus was awarded the Purple Heart for his wounds and the Navy Commendation Medal for his valor in defending the embassy and its personnel. Navy Secretary Graham Claytor personally pinned the medal to his uniform.
Kenneth L. Kraus was born in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and joined the Marines in 1975. After his discharge in 1983, he worked as a nuclear materials security specialist for the Department of Energy, then served 21 years as a crime scene investigator and police detective in Roswell, Georgia. He wrote about his ordeal in “Ken Kraus: A Marine Endures Hell.” He continues to share his story with schools and civic groups — the Marine most Americans have never heard of, sentenced to death on Valentine’s Day.
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