at the time barry rosen is a press -- with the u.s.sy in tehran. >> we were in a very volatile situation for those nine months or so. and much of it came to a head when the shah was permitted into the united states for medical reasons. >> mobs of students are protesting outside the u.s. embassy. >> imagine a quarter million people chanting death to american. people knew that tensions were very high. >> on the morning of november 4th, 1979, ten months into the protest, rocky sickman, a 22-year-old marine security guard gets a stress call that iranian students are storming the embassy grounds. >> over the gate came these individuals. i took off running back to the main embassy building. >> many of these students started to shake the main gate and to climb over or use cutters to cut the chain. >> sickman and another marine make it inside the building just as a group of students makes it through the gate. >> your adrenaline is pumping. but at the same time, you're trying to load your pistol. you're thinking, here is rocky sickman from miss