Ross Perot and the Iran Hostage Crisis
“Clean around me,” I explained to the airline crew, “it’s the last page of my book.”
If you’re looking for a compelling read, check out On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett.
It’s the story of Ross Perot’s executive team who go to Iran and Turkey to get their colleagues out of jail.
The TL;DR version is the government collapsed in Iran, Americans were rounded up and tossed in jail. Fifty-two people spent 444 days incarcerated. It was the birth of late night news shows like Nightline.
Ross Perot’s team got in the crosshairs. When word got back, he went to his management team to figure out what to do. Many of them had served in Vietnam and they come up with a plan to get their colleagues out.
Think about that for a moment … imagine Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, or Tim Cook going to their management team and coming up with THAT solution.
Perot hired “Bull” Simons, a retired colonel to come up with the plan. EDS executives started working out to get in shape for the journey. When they got to Iran, they had to adapt significantly including smuggling two of their men across the border into Turkey.
In my 20s I was a tour leader taking Americans around the world, including a trip to Istanbul, Turkey.
