\tRudy Pitcher calls his wife, Connie, his “combat buddy.”
\tIt’s not an exaggeration.
\tPitcher, now retired from his Army career, was stationed in Tehran in 1978. His wife and their three young children — ages 5, 7, and 9 — were with him.
\tPitcher had spent a year learning Persian-Farsi before he left. At first, life was peaceful, with the shah’s pro golfer teaching Pitcher’s two young sons to golf.
\tBut everything changed in a matter of months. That’s when the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Khomeini threw out the pro-Western shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, ending the historical monarchy. Pitcher was the provost marshal in charge of security — and had eight installations overrun in 48 hours.
\t“We got captured … They weren’t killing us or our families, which was good,” says Pitcher in this week’s Enterprise podcast.
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