A Daughter’s Story: Experiencing the Hostage Crisis In Iran And The States

Rose (Holland) Brinkmann is the daughter of COL Leland J. Holland, the Army Attaché to the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979. She traveled with her family to Iran with the intent of attending the University in Tehran. She was enjoying her time experiencing Iranian culture and working on the embassy compound when the political situation in Iran began to deteriorate, and it became necessary for her to leave the country. Upon returning to America, she lived with the uncertainty of knowing her father was a hostage and waiting for his return. In this interview, Rose Brinkmann talks about growing up in a military family, being stationed in Iran as a teenager, her evacuation from Iran, and the difficulty of leaving her father behind. She describes trying to avoid the press, planning care packages to send to her father, and hiding messages for him in those packages. She also parallels her story with her father’s, telling about his experiences in Iran along with hers in America. Finally, she describes her father’s homecoming, and explains how he compared it to his return from Vietnam.