The Man Behind the Blindfold

From the beginning, he was a symbol of the crisis, an anonymous, blindfolded victim being taunted by an enraged Iranian mob soon after militants seized the U.S. embassy. During the next 14 1/2 months, his picture was published again and again as emblematic of the ordeal of all the American hostages. The blindfold was finally lifted last week, and he was identified by friends and relatives as William Earl Belk.

A 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and the Marines, Belk, 43, became a communications specialist at the embassy only a month before the takeover. His second wife, Angela, 23, of Columbia, S.C., had her bags packed and was preparing to join him when the embassy was seized.

Mrs. Belk burst into tears when she first saw the photograph of her blindfolded husband. A few days after the takeover, she picketed outside the South Carolina statehouse on behalf of the captives. Then Angela Belk withdrew from the public eye.

For most of the 14 1/2 months, she refused to talk to reporters. As the months passed, she became increasingly convinced that she would never see her husband alive again. At one point she asked State Department officials to stop phoning her because their news was never good. But as the negotiations took a promising turn in late fall, Angela Belk's spirits began to rise. She became actively involved in renovating the three-bedroom house that she and her husband own. She said last week: "I, too, feel that in some ways I have been a hostage."

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