Peter Hendra wrote in
:

You'd like it down there.

The only thing you may miss is that neither you nor your offspring
will be likely to be able to die in a patriotic fashion for your
country in the near future at least. We buy our oil in the norm al
manner without the loss of our lower socioeconomic group's lives.


I believe I would. I lived in Tehran and worked for the Iranian Air
Force, building them their first full electronic calibration laboratory
back in 1978-79, leaving 28 days before the Shahanshah was deposed. I
grew tired of the automatic weapons fire waking me up so early in the
morning.

There was a huge T-34 Russian-made tank on our street, loaded and with
crew, the American Embassy warned us never to take pictures of. Those
idiots, obviously, didn't hold an Iranian Air Force ID card....like I
did...(c; I asked the officer in charge of the tank if I could take some
pictures. He said a firm "NO!"...then followed up with "You bring your
camera back tomorrow about noon." He didn't tell me why. Those little
Russian burp guns his men carried are very convincing! Next noon, I
showed up with my camera all loaded. The reason he didn't want me taking
pictures of his tank and men was THEY WERE NOT IN FULL DRESS UNIFORM and
the tank had not been properly cleaned for pictures...(c; I had the
photo lab make a little ring-bound photo book out of the best pictures.
I presented one to the American Embassy assistant to the assistant
something or other. The look on his face when he saw the picture of ME
driving the tank around the neighborhood (without crushing any cars, by
the way) was just so PRICELESS. I gave a photo book to each tank crewman
and the officer in charge to thank them. I was always welcome at any
Iranian Army tank after that....a pretty safe haven if I got into
trouble. Russians make HUGE tanks....two lanes wide! Driving with
levers is very interesting with the big diesel roaring away behind you.
They wouldn't let me fire off a round at one of the taxi drivers, though,
even though they hated them as much as I did...(c;

The other Americans I worked with lived very isolated lives. I'd come to
work and tell of what little restaurant we ate Iranian food at last
night, meeting Iranians who never met an American before, always a great
joy while living in their country. Most Iranians thought we either lived
like John Wayne on a ranch in the 1870s fighting wild Indians...or lived
like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, which had lines running around THREE
blocks waiting to get into the theatres (4 showed it at once) to see it.

I have many Iranian friends here in Charleston who have escaped Islamic
revolution. It's the only way I get to practice my Farsi, I learned
mostly from the Iranian Homafars (AF warrant officers) that worked in the
lab. Even at work I was not their usual American contractor. I ate
breakfast in the Army mess tent on the end of our building with the
drafted conscripts guarding the base. Breakfast was a pocket bread
stuffed with beef, fried onions and a sweet sauce I could never pry the
recipe of out of the mess sgt. This fraternization with the troops also
got me assigned to take electronics and parts and food out to
SIGINT/ELINT monitoring sites on the Iraqi border with those troops. The
other Americans were simply not invited. We had new Chevy Blazers with
huge tires to cover the awful roads, or non-roads, up in the mountains
along the border. The roads were never built because Iran was afraid of
Iraqi invasion with Saddam at the trigger. Don't say that I blamed them.
I'm one of the few Americans who hunted Ibex (mountain sheep) with an M16
I know. We also killed hundreds of wild dogs that attacked US in packs!
It wasn't altogether safe on those trips. The Iranian countryside is one
of the most beautiful places I've ever been....and simply HUGE! Most
Americans I meet have no idea that Iran is as big as the USA, East of the
Mississippi River. Vast areas are totally pristine and uninhabited in
6000 years.

By the way, I'd like to thank you, as a New Zealander, for the food and
booze served at your embassy parties in Tehran while I was there. I
wasn't allowed inside the American Embassy unless I was on official
business. But, my NZ girlfriend, Ann (which in Farsi means **** to
everyone's joy), always got us invitations to some really nice events,
there...or at the Oz Embassy....or the British Embassy. These girls
worked for Iran Air as English teachers for their pilots and crews. I
told them all that was just a transparent front as they all worked for
MI5 or 6 as British Spies...(c; I don't think English teachers could get
invited to Embassy parties with the elite.

I'd go back to Iran, by the way, as soon as invited by a new, more sane,
government. Iranians don't hate Americans, like most people across the
planet. They hate my Illuminati-controlled World Government. Me, too!

Larry
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