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Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod. Let's show about the past, rediscovered.

Today, let's go to Iran, to Valentine's Day, 1979.

These were tense times in the country.

The powerful Shah, propped up by the Americans, had fled a month earlier.

The long-exiled Ayatollah Ruhala Khomeini was back.

And at the U.S. Embassy, Kenneth Krause, a 22-year-old Marine on a security tour, was returning from breakfast.

In an interview, Kraus told me that there was a sense in the air that something was coming down.

At 10.28 a.m., it did. Gunshots, fires, explosions.

The embassy was under attack by militants. But this is not the siege the world remembers, the one that would

lead to more than 50 Americans being held hostage for 444 days. That's right, nine months

before the world witnessed what would become known as the Iran hostage crisis,

Kraus had experienced his own crisis firsthand.

Kraus grew up in Pennsylvania, not far from New Jersey.

He joined the Marines in 1975 as an air traffic controller, then re-enlisted

and moved to embassy duty. His first assignment was in Cyprus, but when an opportunity came up in

Iran, Kraus jumped at it. He was a history buff. Ancient Persia sounded awesome. Kraus arrived in a suit and tie. He was quickly

ordered to change into a flack jacket. Someone handed him the helmet. This wasn't going to be an easy

assignment. Kraus and the other dozen Marines on

security were briefed on increasing threats from guerrillas and other radicals. And when the siege began,

they were vastly outmanned and outgunned. Kraus and others tried to hold their positions in the

...