The Last Shah (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Horus
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The Katzie Kid
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Has anyone ever seen a picture of the Ayatollah smiling??
Terp152
Major
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I flew with Iranian cadets during USAF pilot trng in the mid-70's. Some good, some not so good, much like American pilots.
A woman I knew was married to an ex-US Army helicopter technician working for Sikorsky supporting the Iranian helo force during the downfall of the Shah. She said the Sikorsky mgr call them together at this time, gave them a two week severance check and told them they were on their own and disappeared. She related how she and her children were holed up in a hotel in downtown Tehran, scrounging for food while bullets were fired into the bldg. After several days of this, the Americans were finally loaded onto buses and driven to the airport. The buses were violently rocked back and forth by protesters during the ride (the death to America routine).
Meanwhile I was on alert in Turkey with a C-130 and crew waiting to fly an evacuation from Tehran. I was struck by the complete lack of intel on the part of the USAF, no briefing of what to expect, what the status of the airport was, etc. In the end the USG decided to contract civilian acft to conduct the evacuation which was the proper decision as that was a lower profile option.
A woman I knew was married to an ex-US Army helicopter technician working for Sikorsky supporting the Iranian helo force during the downfall of the Shah. She said the Sikorsky mgr call them together at this time, gave them a two week severance check and told them they were on their own and disappeared. She related how she and her children were holed up in a hotel in downtown Tehran, scrounging for food while bullets were fired into the bldg. After several days of this, the Americans were finally loaded onto buses and driven to the airport. The buses were violently rocked back and forth by protesters during the ride (the death to America routine).
Meanwhile I was on alert in Turkey with a C-130 and crew waiting to fly an evacuation from Tehran. I was struck by the complete lack of intel on the part of the USAF, no briefing of what to expect, what the status of the airport was, etc. In the end the USG decided to contract civilian acft to conduct the evacuation which was the proper decision as that was a lower profile option.
Horus
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Thanks for sharing, that was interesting Chris.
Just goes to show, how quickly things can change in that area of the the world and their different mindset
Seems Governments never have any flexible plans in place and you would think with the time and money spent on these, which can be dubious foreign regimes in these usually third World countries they would have something, rather than what at least to outsiders appears to be just relying on luck and the opposition being even more clueless.
But I suppose the prevailing thoughts were, yeah, we're be ok, things will work out, and are totally gobsmacked when they don't.
Up until October 7th, it appeared on the whole at least from the outside to have good intelligence were the Israelis, but even they found out tragically on that day, that they aren't all seeing, and they know how they stand in that, they cannot rely on good luck.
Though I don't think it's a smart move to crow about, how they found weak spots and used them, as now, they can't use the same ploys again with such success.
Just goes to show, how quickly things can change in that area of the the world and their different mindset
Seems Governments never have any flexible plans in place and you would think with the time and money spent on these, which can be dubious foreign regimes in these usually third World countries they would have something, rather than what at least to outsiders appears to be just relying on luck and the opposition being even more clueless.
But I suppose the prevailing thoughts were, yeah, we're be ok, things will work out, and are totally gobsmacked when they don't.
Up until October 7th, it appeared on the whole at least from the outside to have good intelligence were the Israelis, but even they found out tragically on that day, that they aren't all seeing, and they know how they stand in that, they cannot rely on good luck.
Though I don't think it's a smart move to crow about, how they found weak spots and used them, as now, they can't use the same ploys again with such success.