Former President Carter inherited a lot of problems in foreign policy. When the "hostage crisis" started, we (almost 4000 Grumman employees, think Apollo LEMS on the Moon) had 80 F-14s on the ground in Iran training them for the Shah, which I recall was to be 100 (Newsday). That was a first in US policy and may be the last time its done. The Iranian students in the US, as they were attending our schools, complained to Henry Kissinger no less that the Savak (secret police) was spying on them in the US. He said there was nothing he could do (on TV). I was sitting with the test pilot of the F-14 (think Tom Cruise "Top Gun" Netherlands pilot enlistments went up as the female costar looked like their princess) at a belated birthday with his wife who had been in Iran, and has now a PhD in Anthropology, when the TV announced it would blow up all the F-14s in Iran if the then USSR made a move for the border they shared. He said the air-to-air missiles in their hands would upset the balance of air power. Well, send in the fleet and find out how many US F-14s can shoot down how many Iranian F-14s? I wonder what the neighbors (Iraq, etc.) thought of all this? Then arms for hostages?
- In memoriam to the Israel pilot who died in our burning space shuttle re-entry, whose notes were found. He flew with other Israeli pilots to form an airliner radar signature through international air space to bomb a French-built Iraqi nuclear reactor many years ago thought to have been making nuclear weapons.
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