Kenneth Kraus

In 1979, staff at the United States Embassy in Tehran watched nervously as the chaos swirled through Iran as the Iranian Revolution was gaining strength.

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on February 14, 1979, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was stormed by Fadaiyan-e-Khalq militants. During the attack, United States Marine Corps Sergeant Kenneth Kraus and two other marines were in the Embassy’s cafeteria with more than 18 civilians. A militant approached the area, but Sgt. Kraus caught him by surprise and pointed a shotgun at his head. Sgt. Kraus and his fellow Marines negotiated to let the civilians go peacefully. The Marines then destroyed most of the weapons to keep them from falling into the hands of the militants.

Eventually, militants stormed the cafeteria and captured the Marines. During the attack, one militant fired a shotgun at Sgt. Kraus, but his body armor absorbed the brunt of the impact. Kraus was hit in his head and chest with shrapnel, but was not severely wounded. He was then beaten for information. When he did not give anything to his captors, one of them pulled a gun and fired it in close proximity, intentionally not to kill, but to wound him further; he was bleeding from his neck, arms and chest.

Within hours, Sgt. Kraus awoke in a hospital. He was blindfolded and taken to the Islamic Revolutionary Prison where he was interrogated and tortured. On February 20, 1979, he stood trial in what was a ten-minute process. Sgt. Kraus was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, to be carried out on February 22, 1979.

On February 21, Sgt. Kraus was handed back over to the United States at the Embassy, then flown to Washington, D.C., via Ramstein Air Base in Germany. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Navy Commendation Medal.

Kraus, who was born in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, was discharged from the Marine Corps in 1983. He went on to serve as Special Nuclear Materials Security Specialist for the U.S. Department of Energy, and later became a crime scene investigator and police detective in Roswell, Georgia.