ST. LOUIS - As the world mourns the passing of former President Jimmy Carter, so does a St. Louis area man who said he may owe his life to him. 

Rocky Sickmann is a survivor of the Iran hostage crisis, which occurred during the Carter presidency. 

Reading a nearly 45-year-old letter from Jimmy Carter to Sickmann, you can almost hear the former president’s voice speaking the words in the letter: 

"Enclosed is a photograph of us together (from)...the day after you were released...one of the happiest days of my life."

Sickmann certainly shares that feeling.

“We’re in our pajamas,” Sickmann said of the meeting in Wiesbaden, Germany, after the 52 hostages had been flown out of Iran to freedom at last. It was more than a year after they were taken hostage—444 days to be exact.

“When you meet a president, your commander-in-chief, (you’re) in your pajamas,” Sickmann said with a laugh. “It was an honor to see him.”

Carter signed the photo: "To my friend, Rocky Sickmann."

The letter was dated Nov. 6, 1981, nearly 10 months after Carter left the White House.

Sickmann was a Marine Corps sergeant, providing security at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. He’d been there for about a month when revolutionaries seized control of Iran and took Americans hostage, Nov. 4, 1979. 

The hostages were freed about 20 minutes after Carter’s presidency ended on Inauguration Day, January 20, 1981.

The timing was a final insult aimed at Carter from the new Iranian regime, according to Sickmann. 

Most in St. Louis and across the U.S. who tied yellow ribbons on trees and prayed endlessly for the hostages still fail to realize Jimmy Carter’s role, Sickmann said. 

“He would meet with my parents for the whole year, either every month or every other month. He would fly all the families up to D.C. and meet with them and basically discuss what they were doing (to safely free the hostages),” Sickmann said. “It was sad that it happened on his watch, but I can tell you I probably wouldn’t be talking to you right now if President Carter wasn’t in office.”

Carter’s humanitarian and volunteer work after his presidency inspires Sickmann, even now.

He now works with the Folds of Honor charity, which he says has awarded more than $920 million in scholarships to children and spouses of fallen military and first responders.

Sickmann’s work honors the eight service members who died when military aircraft collided in the aborted Iran hostage rescue attempt in April 1980. He’s carried the eight with him ever since he learned of their heroics upon gaining his freedom all those years ago—eight people who answered the call of their Commander-in-Chief, President Jimmy Carter.

“Those eight individuals would never have the opportunity to hold their grandkids as I have. So each morning I wake up, I think of those eight individuals, and I earn each day in memory of those eight,” Sickmann said. “President Carter (was) a very kind, wonderful man. I hope to be able to continue my life as he did.”

He last saw Jimmy Carter years ago at a baseball game in Atlanta. He noticed him in the stands and had an usher pass a note to the former president, who stood up and started looking around for Rocky. When Carter spotted him, he gave him a wave and the "Jimmy Carter smile."