Big Horn Beverage Donates to Folds of Honor

On Friday, July 12, at the Sheridan WYO Rodeo, Big Horn Beverage of Sheridan donated $5000 to the Folds of Honor (FOH) Scholarship fund. The money will fund one scholarship.

Rodney (Rocky) Sickmann, a retiree of Anheuser-Busch and survivor of the Iran Hostage Crisis, accepted the donation on behalf of Folds of Honor, the non-profit organization that provides academic scholarships to the children and spouses of wounded or killed soldiers and First Responders.

He said this about the help these companies have given Folds of Honor.

There were three people in northeastern Wyoming, the area that Big Horn Beverage covers, who will receive a scholarship this year. There were ten recipients overall in Wyoming. The scholarship can be used for colleges or trade schools.

Sickmann talked about how the folds of honor started. He said that the founder, Lt Col Dan Rooney, an F-16 fighter pilot in the Oklahoma Air National Guard, became painfully aware of the realities families face when a loved one in uniform is fallen or disabled.  He was on a flight home from his second tour of duty in Iraq, when the plane landed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In his garage in Broken Arrow Oklahoma, Rooney and his wife created folds of honor for children of military personnel who lost their parents. After 911, they expanded the program to include First Responders.

August 2016, Sickmann’s military and professional experience, coupled with his passion for our armed forces, led him to pursue an opportunity with his favorite non-profit organization: Folds of Honor.

Sickmann’s story started when he graduated from Washington High School in 1976 and immediately entered the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1979, just 28 days into his tour of duty at American Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Sickmann became a player in one of the most terrifying events in U.S. history.

On November 4, 1979, after months of turmoil marked by the return of the exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun by militants and its employees taken captive. Sergeant Rocky Sickmann, then just 22, was one of 65 Americans taken hostage.

Sickmann talked some about his captivity, and some of the memories. He said he came from a large family of five kids, seven people in a 900 square foot home.

Sickmann remained a hostage for 444 days before being released on Jan. 20, 1981 following 14 months of diplomacy by President Jimmy Carter. Three months later he was Honorably Discharged after six years in the U.S. Marine Corps and received several accolades during his service including the Prisoner of War Medal, The Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Award of Valor, and Good Conduct Medal.

Since Sickmann began working with Folds of Honor, the nonprofit has raised $18 million to send 35,000 spouses and children of fallen and disabled service members to college. He said that the Folds of Honor has a special meaning to him.

Following the military, he began working in advertising for KMOX radio in St. Louis, Mo. and then entered the private sector for Anheuser-Busch InBev. He spent the next 34 years with the company, most recently as the U.S. National Director for Military and Industry Affairs, until his retirement in July 2016. Sickmann’s personal diary, “Iranian Hostage: A Personal Diary of 444 Days in Captivity” is also the only known diary to have been smuggled out of Iran and published. The diary is no longer in publication.

In this new role, Sickmann helps advance the Folds mission: To stand in the financial gap of the more than one million dependents adversely affected by war, providing educational scholarships to the children and spouses of those killed or disabled while serving our nation, as well as children of First Responders.

Since Sickmann began working with Folds of Honor, the nonprofit has raised $18 million to send 35,000 spouses and children of fallen and disabled service members and First Responders to college.

Sickmann said there are 52K stories about the scholarship fund since 2007. Sickmann also helped coordinate the “Here’s to the Heroes Tour” which salutes the men and women of the armed forces, allowing Americans to show their support for the troops via recorded messages filmed on location at community events, celebrations, and festivals nationwide and shared with U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Anyone who is interested in donating to Folds of Honor, or applying for a scholarship, they can go to the website, foldsofhonor.org