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A week later, when a guard told Sickmann about the debacle at Desert One, the young Marine was devastated. It was only after he and the other remaining 51 hostages were released after 444

days as prisoners — minutes after President Ronald Reagan’s inauguration — that Sickmann learned the names of the eight. The five from the U.S. Air Force Hercules were pilot Maj. Hal Lewis,

navigator Maj. Richard Bakke, copilot Capt. Lyn McIntosh, navigator Capt. Charles McMillan, and flight engineer Tech. Sgt. Joel Mayo. The three Marines from the Sea Stallion were Staff Sgt.

Dewey Johnson, Sgt. John Harvey and Cpl. George Holmes. “Those eight individuals had the guts to try,” Sickmann told _AARP Veteran Report_. “For me, I come home, and I’ve got this wonderful

family. Four grandkids. I’ve been able to go fishing with my son. I went to father-daughter dances. I walked my daughters down the aisle. I held my grandkids. Those eight, they lost all of

that.” Today, Sickmann, 65, who joined Anheuser-Busch after the Marines and stayed with the company for 34 years, honors those warriors through his work with Folds of Honor, a charity that

provides scholarships to the children of service members and first responders. Many of the children of those killed at Desert One benefited from scholarships that helped them complete their

education. Maj. Lewis’ son Jim, a neurosurgeon, and Capt. McIntosh’s son Scott, a teacher, both credit their success to charitable help. Sickmann travels extensively to raise funds for Folds

of Honor, which donates more than $20 million in scholarships each year. “We, as American people, must remember that freedom isn’t free,” he said. “These individuals have families, and we

must make sure we take care of them.” He finds his work therapeutic. “There are things that don’t go away,” he said. “You don’t forget it. _Do you have a potential story that might make a

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