LELAND HOLLAND & PAUL NEEDHAM
Incredibly, not just one, but two UNO graduates were among the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days from Nov. 4, 1979, to Jan. 20, 1981. Even more incredible — a third UNO graduate was part of a daring but failed rescue attempt of the hostages. Among the 52 Americans were 1962 UNO graduate Leland Holland, at the time a colonel with the U.S. Army serving as a senior military member at the U.S. Embassy in Teheran; and 1972 UNO graduate Paul Needham (above, waving), a U.S. Air Force captain who was in Iran to aid in the delivery of military equipment to that country.
Holland (left), a bootstrapper at UNO, actually had been taken hostage twice, first in a Valentine’s Day attack that lasted only four hours. There was a chance their ordeal would come to an end in April 1980 when President Jimmy Carter ordered a rescue attempt. But that ploy failed with a helicopter crash in the desert that killed eight servicemen. The rescue party included 1974 UNO graduate Charles Williamson, a special forces pilot — and a childhood friend of Needham. The pair grew up less than two blocks from each other and were classmates at Bellevue Mission Junior High School, Bellevue High School and UNO. Williamson was not harmed during the rescue attempt, surviving to meet with his childhood friend during Needham’s first day home in Bellevue following his release. Leland, a highly decorated officer who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, died in 1990 at his home in Warrenton, Virginia. Needham retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel. He earned a doctorate from the University of Maryland and joined the faculty of Independent College of the Armed Forces at National Defense University in Washington, D.C., where he taught logistics until retiring from that post.