I had been assigned to inspect and supervise the electrification of the petroleum products pipe line starting from the southern part of Iran to Tehran.
The pipe line was built 30 years earlier and was powered by gas turbines, there had been a large investment in the power generation and transmission of the electric power all over the country and they had decided that the best approach would be to get rid of the old gas turbines, and replace them with 6kv electric driven pumps and simplify the operation and the maintenance.
It was the tail end of the Viet Nam war and the retied or discharged military personnel were accepting assignments in Iran. This had turned into a large American community in Tehran doing communication, petroleum, or military projects. We were after all good friends and partners. My company hired a retired army colonel and assigned him to work with me. He was born in Sweden and had immigrated to the US at an early age and had lost his mom and dad at an early age.
He was telling me that his foster family was collecting money from the government and would not even feed him, he had to go and eat his neighbor dog’s food. He was developing into a large and blond swede, he went and adopted himself a nice old lady in northern Chicago area as a foster mother and lived at her house.
Things started falling into place and he graduated from the high school and joined the army, it was an option which was open to him.
He was very intelligent and the military intelligent sent him to the university to gather information on what was happening.
He attended Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois in Chicago and some other schools.
He accumulated enough credits to get two degrees. They sent him to the officers training school. His Carrier in intelligence took off and he was assigned to various American embassies in central and south America.
With the situation in Viet Nam developing into a peaceful war, he was sent there and finally he has retired in 1965, and accepted a technical position with a communication company to do the telephone system in Iran.
He was telling me about his James Bond days in various parts of the world. I had heard lots of long hair stories before and had gotten immunized to them.
We met some of his old friend at watering hole near or office, they were with the American embassy and were recording the communications of the oppositions for the intelligence community.
There were over 80 embassies in Tehran at the time and it kept them all busy.
It was at a late stage of our friendship that I discovered the magic of the Army PX in Tehran. We used to buy ready to eat meals and take with us, it even had desert and was very healthy. Much better than the road side tea houses that we used to eat meals and got sick when we returned home.
I thought the fun would last forever, one day I came out and saw the crazy people burning banks, liquor stores, and buses.
Next we knew was when Khomeini was coming back, the place was not worth staying.
We packed and left for America, it is always good to have a place to crawl in.
Waited for five years for the madness to go away, started a new life and my dear friend got very sick, we took him to the VA military hospital and watched him slide away.
I was glad to be with him during his last hours and holding his hands.
My dear friend, thank you for all the joy you brought to all our lives and may God bless you.
