Polhill Hams It Up on 1st Full Day of Freedom

On his first full day of freedom Monday, Robert Polhill felt the spring rain on his face, squashed a good, all-American baseball cap over his balding head and made his wife laugh by hamming it up for the TV cameras.

And with small, shaky steps, Robert Polhill slowly re-entered the world he left behind 1,183 days before.

It was a world that welcomed him back with service personnel cheering and American flags fluttering from balconies at the U.S. military hospital in Wiesbaden, where the 55-year-old diabetic began undergoing extensive medical tests.

It was a world that many wondered whether he would still recognize: Did he know the Berlin Wall had fallen? Did he hear about the students massacred in China?

And what of the small, secret, sunless world that Polhill knew these past three years?

No details of the ordeal that Polhill had endured emerged publicly Monday in the delicate political aftermath of his release. A newspaper in Tehran hinted at the possibility of another hostage release soon, and Bush Administration sources in Washington confirmed the rumors.

The U.S. government continued to press for the release of seven remaining American hostages in Lebanon and offered a fleeting expression of thanks to Iran for any hand it may have had in obtaining Polhill’s freedom.

But Iran called for goodwill gestures and a reciprocal move after Polhill’s release. Its foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, according to the Associated Press, called for the release of Shiite Muslim cleric Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, who was abducted by Israeli troops in Lebanon last July. The Tehran Times, an English-language daily close to President Hashemi Rafsanjani, said Israel’s detention of scores of Arab prisoners impedes efforts to free Western hostages.

But Israeli officials, while welcoming Polhill’s release, gave no indication that their country plans to free Obeid.

In the days before Polhill’s release, Israel’s air force carried out two attacks in Lebanon that were seen by some observers as increased pressure on pro-Iranian groups holding hostages.

“We have often expressed our disappointment over these raids. It’s part of the cycle of violence that doesn’t help anyone,” said a U.S. official here, speaking on condition of anonymity.

After a preliminary examination Monday morning, doctors at the renowned Wiesbaden facility pronounced Polhill malnourished but alert and “in relatively good shape.”

“He is alert, stable, ambulatory and somewhat tired,” the statement said. “Although he appears to be in relatively good shape, he is malnourished and mildly dehydrated.”

The battery of medical tests that Polhill is voluntarily undergoing will include evaluation of his diabetes, a condition he has had for 25 years. Officials said the kidnapers provided insulin for Polhill during his captivity.

How long Polhill remains at Wiesbaden is “entirely up to him,” said a U.S. official who asked not to be identified.

Polhill devoured a hearty breakfast as soon as he arrived, polishing off scrambled eggs, bacon, English muffins, half a grapefruit, milk and coffee.

In a scratchy voice frozen at the near-whisper he had to use for 39 months, Polhill told members of the medical team that he missed seeing the sun during his captivity and craved the hot fudge sundae that he traditionally treated himself to once a year.

“He didn’t want to be treated like a patient,” Capt. Marjorie Graziano, a flight nurse, was quoted as telling the British news agency Reuters. “But when I told him he looked so pale that I might have to give him oxygen when we reached altitude, he said, ‘I’m so pale because I haven’t seen the sun in three years.’ ”

A special State Department hostage-reception team chatted briefly with Polhill but has not yet begun its intensive debriefing of him, the U.S. officials said.

They said they did not know if Polhill brought any special messages for President Bush or the families of the remaining hostages.

Bush telephoned Polhill at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Damascus before Polhill left the Syrian capital about 2:15 a.m. local time Monday. No details of the conversation were made public.

The debriefing, which is separate from interviews that Polhill might give to Air Force psychologists and psychiatrists, is “to gather information about . . . the conditions he was held in,” one of the U.S. officials said.

The officials said Polhill was kept in the same building as the two Beirut University College professors abducted with him, Alann Steen and Jesse Turner, but that the hostages were probably moved quite often.

News about the freed hostage came second-hand Monday, carefully and sometimes comically filtered through the State Department team.

When a reporter asked whether Polhill’s hospital suite was decorated with any balloons, flowers or welcome-back signs, Air Force public information officers sheepishly replied that the query would have to be studied by the State Department.

“It’s all their show,” one officer said.

Polhill, minus the beard he wore when released Sunday in Beirut, issued no statement himself and only smiled at the throngs of waiting reporters.

He jauntily feinted a pass into the media crowd with the autographed football given him by the Air Force crew of the C-141 Starlifter that flew him through the night from Damascus. In Damascus, he had been reunited with his Lebanese wife, Firyal, on Sunday after being driven from Beirut.

Firyal laughed delightedly at her frail husband’s high-spirited antics. Polhill’s two grown sons by a first marriage were expected to arrive this morning from their home in Upstate New York.

Air Force Capt. Sharon Artenbright, who was on the flight to West Germany, described to the Associated Press Polhill’s demeanor at the airport in Damascus and on the flight:

“An entourage of cars came out--three or four--and Dr. Polhill jumped right out of the second car and headed for the plane.

“He had energy. He was pretty pale, but he was alert. He perked up in six hours. He was very talkative. He conversed. He was reading magazines and newspapers.”

Asked what Polhill had talked about during the six-hour flight, she answered, “He said he was very happy to be (going) home.”

Other brief statements issued by the Air Force throughout the day never quoted Polhill directly and gave no clue as to what he survived after being snatched in January, 1987, from the campus of Beirut University College along with Steen, Turner and Mithileshwar Singh.

Singh, an Indian with U.S. resident status, was freed Oct. 3, 1988. Steen and Turner remain captives.

The last American hostage freed before Polhill was David P. Jacobsen, a Beirut hospital director released Nov. 2, 1986, just before the Iran-Contra scandal broke.

On Monday, Polhill settled into the same two-room suite that Jacobsen had occupied on his way home. Base spokesmen said the suite has a television and sitting room.

There is also a small balcony, where Polhill can enjoy the sunlight he so missed.

On another balcony hangs the banner that greeted him here:

“Welcome Home!” it reads. “Pray For the Others.”

NEXT STEP

Officials from Fishkill, Beacon and Dutchess County in New York state are to meet Wednesday to plan festivities for the homecoming of Robert Polhill. “We are planning a big celebration,” said Mayor George Carter of Fishkill, where Polhill’s mother, Ruth, lives. The freed hostage grew up in nearby Beacon. While Fishkill awaits word on when Polhill will leave West Germany, buildings are festooned with yellow ribbons and lights to honor Polhill and the other hostages. A giant ribbon is wrapped around the steeple of the First Reformed Church. When Polhill comes home, “we’ll take them down,” Carter said. “That’ll be to let him know our prayers have been answered.”

2nd HOSTAGE MAY BE FREED--Syria says another American may be released this week. A8