[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 21, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E792]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING MR. MOHAMMAD HOSSEIN MEHRMAND

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JAY OBERNOLTE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 21, 2021

  Mr. OBERNOLTE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Mohammad 
Hossein Mehrmand, a constituent of mine and a former Lieutenant-General 
of the Imperial Iranian Air Force. Prior to 1979, Iran, was a very 
different country than it is today. Iran and the United States were 
close friends and cooperated in both trade and military affairs.
  Because of this close cooperation between our two nations, Iranian 
military officers like Mr. Mehrmand had the opportunity to visit U.S. 
military installations and work closely with American servicemembers to 
train on U.S.-built fighter jets that were operated by the Imperial 
Iranian Air Force.
  While the Imperial Iranian Air Force operated a number of U.S. 
fighter jets, they were the sole foreign operator of one aircraft, in 
particular, the F-14 Tomcat. As a result of this program, Khatami Air 
Base was constructed by the Iranian government near the city of Isfahan 
in the early 1970s to cater to their new fleet of F-14s with support 
facilities built specifically for the Grumman Corporation. In fact, the 
entire region around Isfahan was booming for the American defense 
industry with other defense contractors like Raytheon, Lockheed, Boeing 
and Hughes Aircraft working on lucrative projects for the Shah's 
government.
  As a result of the massive presence of American enterprise in the 
region, Isfahan was home to at least 1,200 American military members 
and 8,000 civilian advisers at its peak in the mid-to-late 1970s. This 
presence could be felt quite evidently by the massive amount of new 
construction marketed towards the Americans working in the region.
  All of this changed in 1979 as revolutionary fundamentalists began to 
take over Iran. At the time, there were over 5,000 Americans living in 
Iran with many residing around Khatami Air Base. As the situation in 
the country began to deteriorate, the U.S. Embassy in Iran advised all 
Americans to leave the country.
  At the time, Lt. General Mehrmand was the tactical commander of the 
Imperial Iranian Air Force and he had received information that many 
within the Iranian military had begun to go rogue and side with the 
fundamentalist revolutionaries, with many of these rogue units 
attempting to prevent Americans from leaving Iran.
  Lt. General Mehrmand took action on behalf of our citizens and met 
with the rogue units to successfully negotiate the American exodus from 
Iran. He additionally made arrangements to allow for twenty-five 
special American passenger planes to enter Iranian airspace to begin 
evacuating all Americans from Iran. As a direct result of his efforts, 
nearly 5,000 Americans were safely and successfully evacuated out of 
the collapsing country.
  Within weeks of the evacuation flights, the Imperial Iranian 
government collapsed, and the fanatical government of Ayatollah 
Khomeini took over Iran. Under the new government, Lt. General Melmnand 
was branded a traitor for securing the exodus of the American people 
and had his property, assets, and retirement pension confiscated. 
Fortunately, Mr. Mehrmand was able to escape persecution in Iran and 
found refuge here in the United States.
  Mr. Mehrmand, despite not being an American citizen, had the boldness 
and courage to stand up against fanaticism in the name of freedom for 
the American people. Today, Mr. Mehrmand is 92 years old, and a proud 
American citizen living happily in California. I am delighted to have 
this opportunity to recognize his patriotic actions and I want to 
express my profound gratitude to him for his service to our country and 
to our national interests.

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