OUR oddball

Those who have seen the film "Argo," know the scene that catches Idaho audiences' attention.

On the big screen, government officials are giving a briefing on the few who escaped the U.S. embassy in Iran in 1979, just before it was taken over by protesting natives.

Among the six who escaped was Lee Schatz, who one official identifies as "a bit of an oddball from Idaho."

At a viewing of the film in Coeur d'Alene on opening weekend, audience members perked up at this.

A current of ownership ran through the crowd. That wasn't just any oddball, he was OUR oddball.

What fun, Idaho had a small piece in the historic hostage crisis that lasted 444 days.

And not just Idaho, but North Idaho.

Schatz, 31 at the time of the Iranian hostage crisis, was born and raised on the Rathdrum Prairie.

Now working in Washington, D.C., the Kootenai County native is happy to relive his memories of the CIA's scheme to smuggle himself and others out of Iran by passing them off as a Canadian film crew.

"It's a hoot," said Schatz, now 64, of what his life has been like since "Argo" became an instant hit. The film is now up for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Schatz has gone through a whirlwind of media interviews. Friends have queried him about the circumstances that he minimizes as just a very interesting three months of his life.

"People I know through work, they went, 'Wait a minute, why didn't you ever tell me about this?'" said Schatz, speaking over the phone this week from Washington, D.C. "I said, 'Why would we talk about something that happened 30 years ago?'"

The hostage crisis

Much of what is depicted in "Argo" hits close enough to the truth, Schatz said.

But some details are a little off, he noted, or just plain concocted by the screenwriter to boost drama.

For instance, the police cars chasing after the group's plane at the end of the film never happened.

The film also identifies that Schatz was in Iran selling farming equipment, which isn't quite right.

He was stationed in Iran by the Foreign Agricultural Service, he said, an agency he still works for today. The FAS stations Americans at embassies around the world to represent the U.S. agriculture interests.

Schatz had volunteered to be assigned in Iran, he said. He wanted to witness firsthand the Shia Islamic country in post-revolutionary transition, following the overthrow of the Shah.

"It sounded like a pretty exciting opportunity," Schatz said. "You don't often get to see history made."

He got to see more than he bargained for.

On Nov. 4, 1979, the embassy employees had been expecting some chaos, Schatz said, knowing it was the anniversary of students killed by the Shah before the revolution.

Protests were common at the time in Iran, Schatz said, which he complimented the film on capturing.

"That's the piece I think they caught very well in the movie, the general level of tension," he said. "It was not uncommon when you came to walk out the front gate, there'd be 30 people chanting."

Those in the embassy had no reason to think the protest that day was anything special, he said.

So he simply walked out of the compound, he said, when he spotted a vacant slot in the crowd.

"It's what you did every day, anytime there was a protest," Schatz said. "You killed some time until they walked away, and you walked out. It's just what you did."

The film depicts that he and the other five who escaped the embassy holed up at the Canadian ambassador's home to wait out the hostage crisis.

In fact, Schatz said, he and three others, the Lijeks and Bob Anders, were sheltered at the Tehran home of Canadian councilor John Sheardown. The other two Americans, married couple the Staffords, stayed with the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor.

The six had initially expected that control of the embassy would be quickly turned back over to the U.S., Schatz said. Or that they would be forced to join the rest of the hostages.

As time passed, it became evident that neither the hostage crisis nor their hidden status had a clear end in sight.

"Nobody anticipated, not in the first hours, not in the first days, not in the first weeks, that it would go on as long as it did," Schatz said. "It was probably Christmas before we really said, this seems like the situation for the six of us was a separate issue. It didn't look like it was going to resolve itself."

The plan

But it did.

The group met Tony Mendez, the CIA operative who would ferry the six Americans out of Iran, just two days before the planned operation, Schatz said.

"That's how much notice we had to gear up about that," Schatz said, adding that the group had no idea an escape scenario had been planned for them.

The movie depicts that Mendez was unilateral in deciding the group would pose as Canadian filmmakers to leave the country without raising suspicion.

But Mendez actually gave them a few potential fake identities to choose from, Schatz said.

The six settled on the film crew ruse, he said, because it seemed the most fun.

"Seriously," Schatz said. "That was one of the things that Tony said, is 'You have to be able to see yourself doing this. You have to have fun doing it, that way you're engaged.'"

That followed with memorizing fake back stories for their phony identities, adjusting their appearances so they didn't look suspiciously spot-on with their fake passport photos.

The group trusted Mendez, Schatz said.

"It wasn't like someone was handing us a plan and saying 'Good luck,'" Schatz said. "He was going to be with us as we (went through) that departure. He was on the line, too."

The film shows that the Iranians caught on at just the last second, nearly chasing down the group as the plane takes off. But the escape was much smoother, Schatz said.

There was a little confusion over Schatz's passport photo, but he was believed when he tugged down his mustache to match the image. A mechanical issue delayed the flight, he added, but soon enough they boarded and were in the air.

"The relief actually wasn't until we got into Turkey's air space," Schatz said, adding that the six bought drinks and saluted each other in celebration on the plane. "If anything had happened early, they could've turned the plane around and gone back to Tehran."

The movie

Schatz didn't love the film the first time he saw it, he admitted.

"I kept saying, 'Oh this didn't happen,' or 'It didn't happen this way,'" he said.

But the second time, he just absorbed it for pure entertainment value, he said, and enjoyed himself.

"There were pieces of it I learned more about," he said, of the orchestration of the filmmaking scheme.

Schatz gave actor Rory Cochrane tips on the phone about depicting himself, he said. He also met actor/director Ben Affleck and actor Bryan Cranston.

"If they were people who lived in your community, you'd hope they were your friends," he said. "They seemed like very genuine people."

He has remained friends with Mendez throughout the years, he added.

While Schatz has traversed 30 countries in his career, he said, he has never been assigned again to Iran.

For now, he hopes relations between the U.S. and Iran improve, he said. That the two countries learn to talk to each other more, and conspire against each other less.

As for the situation he faced in 1979, he said, it was exciting, but it didn't change his life.

"Just part of being able to see how the world ticks," he said.