Ex-Hostages Sticking Up for Lebanon : Reunion: 11 former captives gather to spark renewed interest in the beleaguered nation.

It could have been a reunion of Navy shipmates. Graying men, some with salt-and-pepper beards, held a cocktail in one hand and threw the other hand over the shoulder of a comrade from long ago.

But the 11 who gathered at a downtown hotel Wednesday night to mix and mingle have a common history that is at once infinitely more public and yet far less accessible than the shared experiences of war veterans. All had been held hostage in Lebanon--and lived long enough to see their release.

“The people who went through the hostage ordeal are pretty strong people,” said David Jacobsen, a 62-year-old health care consultant from Huntington Beach who was held prisoner in Beirut for nearly 18 months. He was director of the American University of Beirut Medical Center when he was captured by Muslim extremists on May 28, 1985.

“We all have that big H branded on our foreheads,” said Jacobsen, a bear of a man whose ruddy face is outlined by a gray beard and framed by gold-rimmed bifocals.

“People have a lot of misinformation about former hostages. . . . They think that if they had gone through that ordeal, they would have been traumatized. But none of us have nightmares, none of us have flashbacks, none of us have excessive reaction to sudden noises or movement. We’re pretty damn normal.”

The hostages, including Terry Anderson, who was held for nearly seven years and was the last American set free, appeared at a dinner sponsored by the American Task Force for Lebanon. Held on the first anniversary of Anderson’s release, the event was intended to spark renewed interest in the plight of Lebanon, which remains largely occupied by Syria and, in the south, Israel.

“Too many people in America, when they think of Lebanon, think of what happened to us,” Anderson said in an interview. “They see that same face, the bearded face with the fanatical eyes and the gun. And that’s wrong. That doesn’t represent Lebanon, that doesn’t represent Islam.”

The former chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, Anderson now is affiliated with Columbia University, where he is writing a book about his experiences.

Jacobsen, who describes himself as an Orange County Republican somewhat “to the right of (Rep.) Bob Dornan,” said that he has forgiven the people of Lebanon for his ordeal, but that he will never forgive the hostage takers.

“We were all kidnaped for money, I think that’s clear. And the Iranians did it, no question about it,” Jacobsen said.

He and another former hostage, Joseph Cicippio, recently filed suit against Iran in U.S. District Court here, demanding $600 million in damages.

Jacobsen stands apart from many of the former hostages on several fronts. For one thing, he strongly endorses the arms-for-hostages trades engineered by then-Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North.

Jacobsen was freed on Nov. 2, 1986, shortly after intermediaries delivered a load of 11 missiles to Iranian authorities in a deal that would be the last in the series of North’s arms deals. Jacobsen said he still believes the idea was sound, and that North and former President Ronald Reagan are heroes.

And Jacobsen does not agree that the returning hostages were universally welcomed. The hardest thing about returning home, Jacobsen said, had nothing to do with physical or emotional adjustment. It was finding work.

“When I came home I sent out 300 resumes, and it was a good resume. I had good qualifications. But all I got was a handful of responses: ‘We’ll keep it on file,’ ” he recalled. He blamed the lack of interest on employers’ fears that a former hostage in his mid-50s would bring with him a host of physical and psychological problems.

Jacobsen, who was divorced before he left for Lebanon, said his seven grandchildren, as well as his two sons and daughter, helped him learn to love again. “They don’t look at me as an ex-hostage,” he said. “They just look at me as someone who loves them.”

Eventually, Jacobsen wrote a book, published last year, titled, “Hostage: My Nightmare in Beirut.” And he recently has been working as a consultant for Friends in the West, a group that sponsors orphanages and literacy schools in Eastern Europe and Africa.

On behalf of that organization, Jacobsen returned two months ago from a trip to another country that is fast gaining a reputation as an international tragedy--Somalia.

“Somalia is a crime against humanity. It’s a man-made famine. It’s a nation of exhausted people,” Jacobsen said. But, he added, he will not hesitate to go back if there is hope that he can make a difference.