LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Butler native and retired Navy SEAL Gerhard Klann today will receive the Legion of Merit with a Combat “V.”

He lives in Las Cruces, N.M.

Klann is receiving the award for his service as a member of SEAL Team Two’s counter-terrorism platoon from Aug. 14 to 24, 1980.

According to the Legion of Merit citation, Chief Petty Officer Klann volunteered to enter Iran and learn the location of American hostages, as well as the extent of Iranian security around them.

Klann went into Iran using the cover of being a foreign businessman, and had to commit to memory all that he learned while on his own for 10 days.

With what he had learned, plus the heavy security he found at the U.S. Embassy, officials decided not to make a second rescue attempt, after the first attempt failed.

The 52 Americans became hostages on Nov. 4, 1979, when a group of Islamic revolutionaries overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.