Former Iran Hostage On Operation Epic Fury, The Regime's Brutality

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I'm Stuart Vaughny. I'm Martha McCallum. I'm Jason Chafetz and this is the Fox News rundown.

Tuesday, March 17th, 2026. I'm Dave Anthony. As the US keeps attacking Iran, we talked to one of

the Iranian regimes first terror victims. Among the Americans, kidnapped in 1979 held hostage there

for more than a year. I found myself in solitary for 43 days in a small five-byte and room with a

box spring on the floor. No mattress blindfolded in handcuffed. I'm Lisa Brady. I opening new numbers

on a cancer hitting younger adults more often, but there's also empowering advice. Every choice you make

matters. And so it's really important for people to understand that you do have some control

over your cancer risk. And I'm Tom Shaloo. I've got the final word on the Fox News rundown.

Operation epic fury rages for an 18th day. The US and Israel targeting Iran. They have been literally

obliterated. President Trump says their Navy is gone and so is Iran's Air Force.

Anti-aircraft is decimated. Their radar is gone and their leaders are gone. Other than that,

they're doing quite well. And the president believes the US and some allies will work soon

to unblock oil shipping in the state of Hormuz. When this is over, oil prices are going to go

done very, very rapidly. But more important, the president says, you can't let the most violent,

vicious country in the last 50 years have a nuclear weapon. Many Democrats have been critical

questioning epic fury strategy and what the endgame might be. Congressman Rokana tells Fox.

I just want the president to clear victory and the war. I don't want more Americans dying.

I don't want $2 billion a day going into the Middle East. Someone else watching this conflict

closely was there at the start of this Iranian regime, one of its first terror victims.

And I think the president of the United States now, Donald Trump, is doing the right thing

in trying to deny the Iranians from in their pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Kevin Hermening isn't just a Republican running for Congress in Wisconsin, which we'll talk about

later. He's one of the 66 Americans kidnapped by Iran in 1979 held hostage 444 days.

The administration of Washington needs to be cautious about installing the next leader into power.

We've tried that before over the last 100 years and it didn't work out so well. We need to encourage,

we need to perhaps provide support, maybe even provide some type of small arms or middle size arms

to change the regime there, but we can't actually put their leader in.

You think the people of Iran can do it?

I do. They've taken to the streets many, many times over the last 47 years,

2011, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, earlier this year. They've taken to the streets, but actually,

if there is ever a textbook case for supporting the second amendment, it would be Iran,

because the Iranian people don't even have small arms. So it seems to me that whatever comes out

of Iran after this, it's going to look different. Eight to 12, maybe 14% of the Iranian people

are on the side of the mullahs. The rest just want to take care of their families, be left alone

and pursues their version of freedom.

You were one of the first victims of this regime's terror. November 4, 1979, the storming of the US

embassy in Tehran, you and 65 others taken hostage. You were in Tehran on assignment there at

the time, right? Yes, sir. I was a marine security guard. I was the youngest of everybody there.

I had just turned age 20. I was the senior sergeant as it turned out, only because of how

data of rank is decided in the military. But that Sunday morning, the Marines inside the buildings,

the chancellery building and the consulate on duty. And suddenly when the protests began,

we all grabbed our helmets, our flag check. It's a satchel of tear gas.

And I would describe the minimal weaponry that we had. Weapons we had, the shotguns, 12-gate

shotguns, like I would use back in Wisconsin to go fesent hunting or duck hunting and a 38 caliber

revolver on our hip. The Iranians weren't told that those were the only weapons they could bring

to the embassy that day. And indeed, the Iranian army participated. But as we were following the

orders from the ambassador, the chargé de fares Bruce Langan, he was ordering us to use our tear gas

to delay the entry of the Iranians into the main buildings so that classified materials

could be destroyed, satellite equipment, computer gear up in the communications vault.

And I happened just by pure accident to find myself in that vault when the decision was made

to open the main door to the second floor. And the rest of the Americans were captured, by the way,

a bunch of Marines were captured in their apartment building just outside the back gate,

simply because they had been on the third shift, or they were going to be on the second shift

in the day. So they were in their apartments. But for us, it was an immediate blindfolding and hand

cuffing and interrogations. And Colonel Charles Scott was beaten so severely in those first days.

He had three of his teeth broken off at his gum lines. The roots of his teeth buried inside of

his gums and no dental or medical treatment till we were freed. Oh, that sounds horrible.

There was another Wisconsinite, Tom Averne, accused by the Iranians of being in charge of our

CIA operation there. Tom spent 425 days in solitary confinement. That's almost the whole time.

Almost the whole time. I don't know how he did it. Wondering every day if he was the only one

still left behind. Personally, I tried to escape in January of 1980, about three and a half four

months in. I was just tired of being there, never made it anywhere. It was immediately recaptured,

found myself in solitary for 43 days in a small five by ten room with a box spring on the floor,

no mattress, blindfolded and handcuffed. And so 43 days is nothing compared to what Tom went through.

43 days is still a lot of time, Kevin. And what do you, I mean, none of us know what that's like

in darkness, blindfolded 43 days. How do you, what, what do you do? How do you manage?

You get on your knees and you pray that someday you'll be delivered out of that situation.

Is this miserable? Did they feed you? Was it barely enough? Did you get tortured daily?

Talked to daily? Question daily or just left alone most of the time?

Well, the first two to four months were the most difficult after that things began to

relax a little bit. They had to take care of us. They had to feed us. They had to take us down

the hallway to use the bathroom facilities. They had to screen our mail that they were allowing

us to to to write or to receive very little, by the way, ever got in. And certainly nothing ever

that gave us an idea of what was going on outside the country to maybe secure our release.

But there was a piece of information that made its way in. And that was that there had been a

rescue mission. April 25th, 1980, as it turned out, learned all the details, of course, later.

But three Marines and five Airmen died during the aborted rescue mission. And some of our troops

that survived spent as many as up to two years at the San Antonio Burn Center. That's how

severe their injuries were. But I've met many of these guys over the last 47 years, 45 years now.

I've told them that though they failed in mission, they didn't fail in a different goal they

weren't even thinking about. Because once we realized, once we learned that they had tried,

that's all we needed to keep going. Because that's what gave us hope. That's what continued to

drive us until we were finally freed in January of 1981 on the day that Ronald Reagan took office.

It gave us hope that we weren't forgotten. Tell us about that day. You're finally freed.

Well, we didn't really think it was going to happen because they played that mind game a lot

in captivity. The negotiations are going really well. Don't worry. You're going to be out of here

real soon. It was a lot of emotional up and down. One thing we did have a pretty good sense of

was what day it was, or especially as things got closer to inauguration day.

Did you know Carter lost? We did know. They asked us if we knew anything about this new guy,

Ronald Reagan. I didn't. I had no idea who Ronald Reagan was, as you might expect.

Right. You were there for the campaign. You weren't there for any of it.

Well, and I was a kid. I know he was an actor. Did you even know he had been an actor?

I did not. No. Because he was an actor before I was born pretty much.

Right. I look at those days before we were released and they started getting a little anxious.

I thought that we were just going to be moved from room to room again or city to city,

which happened a lot. So I stuffed in the box and a blindfold and a tiny deck of playing cards

that I had made out of five three by five index cards. A Bible that had been sent over to the

embassy by a lady in California. Actually, she said 53 Bibles over and I got Bible number 26.

So I became hostage number 26 for whatever reason. And so and then you took all those things with

you. Do you still have them? Yep. So we we were they came in the next evening. They said,

grab your stuff. It's time to go. They blindfolded us. They hand cuffed us. They put us on a bus,

drove us through the streets of Tehran to the Maribat International Airport. And we heard the

jet engines of the plane that they would eventually be flying us to freedom. But also we heard the crowds.

The closer we got to the plane, the louder the crowds became. Death to America, Yankee, go home.

I mean, we were more than ready by then. But it was a nonstop. That's what we heard all night,

all day, every day for 444 days. But then, you know, we had had those boxes in our arms and the bus

stopped. They opened the door of the bus, wanted a time on handcuffed us. They unblindfolded us.

And as we stepped out of the door of the bus, they shoved us out into the crowd, almost like a

gauntlet. They took the boxes away. I'll never forget running through that crowd. It wasn't very far

to the stairs of the plane. But I think it only took me two or three leaps up the stairs into the

plane. And as each one of us came through the doorway of the plane, you know, tears were flowing,

high fives, hugging one another, smiles. And I really just have to smile when I say that because I

was a 21-year-old kid. I saw those four beautiful stewardesses on the plane. And I knew it was time

to come home. But, you know, eight months later, eight months later, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,

my hometown. Now, I live in Warsaw, Wisconsin, about three hours north, but and have for the

last 41 years. But I can literally say to you that in August of 1981, the UPS guy showed up at the

Marine Corps Recruiting Station with my box. And all it said on the box was to hostage number 26.

And they found somebody somehow in the government found out that that was mine. And I still have that

Bible. I still bring it to some of my speaking engagements and show the audience and read from

it a couple of important verses in Psalm 23, right? Shadow of death. That really is something,

the fact that you still have. And the fact that that returned to you, I assume you never thought

you'd ever have that again. No, never. I mean, we just thought that they wanted to impose one

more level of cruelty, right? A little diary that I had kept a list of all the people I was

roommates with and how many days and a list of a whole bunch of things. Bill Kio suggested that maybe

what I should do is make my own version of the original bucket list before that was even a phrase

that was coined in the media or in the movies. So I still have that list as well. And honestly,

about a third of the things on that list I've done, about a third of things on that list I'm too old

to do. And when I look back on it, about a third of the things on that list probably never should

have been different. You were a young guy, you know, right? I mean, it was a different time and a

different mindset, of course. I know. Absolutely. I should make sure my political opponents don't find

that when on your list, serving in Congress, running for Congress, I mean, you were a candidate 40

years ago. You're a candidate again. Did you have that on your list, your bucket list? That wasn't

on my list. I got involved in politics a few years after we got back from captivity when I

went door to door when Ronald Reagan was running for re-election. But back in 1986, when I ran

the first time, the voters really said to me, Kevin, you're still too young. You maybe should get

a job and have a family by a house, maybe get involved in your community. And I've done all of those

things, which doesn't entitle me, by the way, to serving in Congress. But it gives me a different

perspective in life, having lived a long time and invested and put roots down in my community.

I would also say that we are living in a time right now, especially for the last two weeks.

And this isn't going to end in the short, short term. We live in a very serious time that demands

steady conversations, responsible discussions. And I think I'm prepared to do that.

Kevin Hermaning is a Republican running for Congress in Wisconsin, the 7th House District,

a former Marine who was one of the Americans taken hostage held captive from 1979 until

January of 1981. What a noir deal. And Kevin, what an honor to talk to you. Thank you so much for

being here. Thank you. And let us never forget the eight heroes from Operation Eagle Club back then.

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2026 marks 250 years of America. And throughout the year,

Wilhemmer takes listeners on a journey through the 250 most impactful moments in American history.

Listen and follow now at Fox News Podcasts.com. This is Tom Shaloo with your Fox News commentary.

Coming up. Younger generations are facing a rising risk of colon and rectal cancer.

In fact, for adults under age 50, colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer related

death. You wake up one day and things can shift so quickly. That's right. That's what I want.

Everyone to be mindful of. Mother of three, Kathleen Pratt was just 39. When stage four,

colon cancer was found during an elective surgery that had been planned to help prevent future

cancer risk. She had ulcerative colitis since childhood, which also means stomach pain wasn't

unusual for her. And she tells Fox 24 Charleston. It was also easy to dismiss extreme fatigue as a

symptom. We live in a busy society. I was a busy mom and I was just plugging away at life and

wasn't slowing down. After more surgery and chemo, Pratt is a survivor and advocate for the

Boone project for young adults fighting cancer. A new report from the American Cancer Society

shows nearly half of new colorectal cancer cases 45 percent are an adult's 65 and younger.

That's up from less than 30 percent in 1995. It's really important to realize that the landscape

of colorectal cancer in the US is changing rapidly and it's shifting to a younger age diagnosis.

Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society

is lead author of the report, but it's not even just people under 15 now. Now we're seeing

increases in both incidents and death in middle-aged people. And the reason is because

the risk of colorectal cancer is increasing in every generation born after 1950.

And so people like me born in the 60s have elevated risk and I've aged into middle-aged and so

we're starting to see these trends even beyond those youngest adults that are so concerning.

But people under 50 do have the steepest increase at this point. And so in this study that we looked

at this month, rates were increasing by 3 percent per year for people under 50 as a whole,

which is a very rapid increase for cancer. Typically rates don't change that much from year to year.

And most of the increase is for advanced diagnoses, which is particularly concerning.

Yeah, so when you say advanced diagnoses, that means catching it late, right, or in the later stages.

Right, right, when treatment is less successful, more extensive,

and has the potential to be more toxic, causing more side effects. And that's another thing that isn't

isn't talked about a lot. But the younger you're diagnosed, the longer you have to experience

the treatment side effects. And so survivorship is another issue. And lost productivity because

we're talking about people who are in the midst of growing their careers. Most of them have young kids.

So it's really a new patient compared to what doctors had been treating, which were mainly

people in their 70s. Wow, so yeah, a lot of ripple effects when you're dealing with younger

cancer patients. The biggest question, of course, is why? Are we starting to figure that out?

There is a lot of research going on. We know many things about the causes of colorectal cancer

in older adults, some of the major factors that cause cancer in the older adults are smoking,

processed meat consumption, heavy alcohol consumption, not in a fiber in the diet.

And these behaviors are probably contributing to this increase, but it's thought that it's

something beyond that because these risk factors are based on cancer in older adults who, for example,

had high smoking rates. But young adults aren't smoking very much. Their rates are very low,

under 10%, about 6%. And so probably it's not smoking that's causing this increase. And that's why

there's a lot of new research going on. It seems to be some change that was introduced around the

middle of the 20th century. And if you think about our food supply, there have been a lot of changes

in that time. So there's a lot of research looking at the microbiome, how different foods might

influence, inflammation say in the gut, because we know that inflammation increases cancer

promotion. And so there's a lot going on. But honestly, the answer is we really don't know what's

causing it right now. Yeah. And if they're thinking in that time frame that you're talking about,

is this another area where the so-called ultra-processed foods are going to be getting a hard look?

Absolutely, absolutely. Those are already being studied. It's a little bit difficult to study

something that's so pervasive in the society. But there is a lot of research going on,

because as I said, we've known for a long time that process meat is a carcinogen because of its

association with colorectal cancer. And so it would make sense that other processed foods

and ultra-processed foods might also contribute to this increased risk. And you know, another

another thing that's being researched that's newer in the latter half of the 20th century is

the microplastic exposure. And many ultra-processed foods are packaged in plastics.

Well, all of the research on that and the causes continues. What can we do in terms of prevention?

Obviously, avoiding certain risk factors like alcohol and smoking. How much of a, is any decline

helpful, or does it have to be, you know, wholesale not doing the risky things at all?

No, absolutely. Every day we make choices that influence our risk, not just of colorectal cancer,

but of many, many different cancers. So the first thing is to not smoke. And if you smoke to talk to

your doctor about ways that your physician can help you quit. And then trying to keep a healthy

diet is especially important for this cancer. So when you're hungry in the afternoon, choose an

apple instead of the chips. And if you do that, you know, one day then maybe you'll develop a taste

for the next day and so on. But every choice you make matters. How important is fiber? Because we

hear a lot more about that nowadays too. Exactly. Fiber is very important. It's been difficult to

study. But the evidence does seem to be clear now that if you have way too little fiber, you are

at increased risk for colorectal cancer. And, you know, fiber is not just in whole grains like,

you know, a sandwich with whole wheat bread. It's also in fruits and vegetables. And so you get a

tofer when you're eating a lot of fruits and vegetables because they're healthy in many ways,

but also giving you that extra fiber. We talked about how in these under 50 and under

patients, colorectal cancer is found at more advanced stages. What's financially or logically,

you know, preventing screenings from starting even sooner? Maybe say to make them regular in the

30s, for instance. Yeah, that's the most common question I get asked after what's causing this.

And it seems to make sense that you would just start screening earlier, but the reason that

doesn't work is because there are harms with screening. And just logistically, there are only

so many gastroenterologists. And so you don't want to screen people who have very, very low risk of

the disease. You want to balance the benefit and the harm. And so the risk of disease has to be

high enough so that the harms that are associated with screening are overcome by the benefit.

I mean, colonoscopy rarely causes a perforation, but it can. It can cause death. And so you just have

to balance those benefits and harms. What symptoms should send you to your doctor? What are the

red flags? A great question because we're seeing this preponderance of advanced stage diagnosis.

And diagnosis at a localized stage has a five year survival rate of 95% for people under 50.

And so critical to get diagnoses earlier by increasing awareness of the symptoms, which are

commonly for people under 50 in particular, bleeding any blood you're seeing from the rectum or

in your stool for longer than a week or two. Please go to your doctor and get it checked out.

Another symptom that's very common is abdominal pain. Also, any unusual change in your stool.

And just getting people to talk about these things, especially people under 50, you know, they don't

want to talk about their rectum and blood in the stool. And they don't even want to talk to their

doctor about it. And that's contributing to these delays in diagnosis. So really appreciate

you covering this story and just talking more about all these things that are just, you know,

natural to our body and could really save our life if we talk about it.

Even with the abdominal pain, I mean, there's there's a big range of the type of pain, the

severity of pain. Is it really also about listening to your body if it's something that really feels

abnormal in terms of stomach pain for you? Yes, exactly. I mean, that's the problem with a lot of

these symptoms is that they're so common and they could be from many causes. But if you're having

stomach pains, it feels like stomach pains for more than a week, it's not going away. I mean,

just go to the doctor and get it checked out. And the American Cancer Society offers a lot of

information about all of these things. Where can people find out more? Yes, please go to cancer.org

for more information about colorectal cancer and how you can reduce your risk.

Rebecca Siegel, Senior Scientific Director of Surveillance Research at the American Cancer Society,

thank you so much for your time. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you again for covering the story.

I'm Gianna Jalosi with your Fox True Crime Minute. A five-year-old boy was found dead inside a home in

Centennial, Colorado, south of Denver, and his accused killer is his 11-year-old brother. The cause

of the boy's death hasn't been released and information is limited given the victim and the

suspect's age. But police say the 11-year-old was being held at a youth services center in Centennial.

He faces a first-degree murder charge. Christopher Decker is a legal analyst and spoke with Fox 31

Denver about the situation, calling it highly unique, saying he can't think of another case that

comes to mind of an 11-year-old facing a first-degree murder charge. He also noted that under Colorado

law, the minimum age of juvenile can be transferred to adult court is 12 years old, meaning the 11-year-old

cannot be prosecuted as an adult. Decker told Fox 31 that Colorado's juvenile law process would

allow prosecutors to seek up to a seven-year sentence in custody for certain aggravated crimes.

There's more on this story at FoxNews.com or subscribe to the Fox True Crime podcast.

I'm Gianna Jalosi with your Fox True Crime Minute.

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It's time for your Fox News Commentary.

Tom Shaloo. What's on your mind?

I grew up in Norwood, Massachusetts, which was a very Irish Catholic town. In Norwood,

the St. Patrick's Day Parade was easily as big as the 4th of July Parade.

Growing up, it seemed like most people were Catholic, and everybody was Irish.

My town was full of Sullivan's, McCreedy's, O'Connor's, Kelly's, and of course the Shaloo's.

Shaloo might not sound like an Irish name, but it is. You just got to say it with an Irish

broke. Oh, Tommy Shaloo. Also, we had a stereo turntable at home with a big record collection featuring

my dad's favorite pop group, The Clancy Brothers. To me, The Clancy Brothers were as prominent and

popular in American culture as the Captain and Taneel, Simon and Garfunkel, or Three Dog Night.

I mean, didn't everybody's dad come upstairs from the basement after drinking a beer or two

and forced the whole family to sing along to Johnny Maccaldoux and McGee and me?

It wasn't until I was older that I realized there weren't quite as many Irish as I thought.

But on St. Patrick's Day, everybody's Irish, right? New York certainly goes pretty big.

And although I don't make it out like I used to with the revelers on St. Patrick's Day,

you know, it's a little much for me. I'll stay home, but I'll pour myself a Guinness

and I still have my dad's old record player and maybe I'll pop on a Clancy Brothers record

and toast to my dad. Happy St. Patrick's Day. This is Tom Shaloo.

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