I have a personal story about working with Iranians in a U.S. training exercise.
I was an NROTC midshipman on my second year summer training and we were somewhere in Virginia getting a little taste of what Marine life in the field was all about.
This was in 1972 when we were allies with the Shah of Iran and a few Iranians were being trained along with a group of maybe 100 midshipmen like me.
The Iranian guys were clutzy. The language barrier might have been a big issue, but it was more than that. Your average American may not have operated a rifle before, but he’s driven a car, used a lawn mower, and is mechanically oriented.
I don’t think the Iranians had that background and it caused problems.
And at one point in the training they put me in a foxhole with an Iranian dude. We had rifles with blank cartridges and it was pitch black out and the Marine trainers were in the woods making noise, firing illimination, and trying to show us a tiny glimpse of what a night firefight felt like.
Anyway, the Iranian next to me got jumpy and fired a blank shot directly into my right eye. Fortunately after a couple weeks in the hospital I was fine. Didn’t lose an eye. There were a bunch of plastic bits lodged in the outer layer of the eye and every few weeks I had to get some removed as they were ejected by the eye.
Bottom line, I was lucky. But I still believe if you put mechanical, computing and modern weapons systems in the hands of your average Iranian, there’s a much higher chance of accidents happening.
Wow. Glad you didn’t lose an eye...I had a fairly benign encounter with one that lost me a tie and got me ten dollars...I was in Jet-A school in Millington, TN and when I was preparing to punch holes in my stack of self-paced learning papers, an Iranian guy next to me grabbed my tie, stuck it in the machine and hit the punch button.
It punched a hole in the tie, and while I was still processing, the guy grinningly handed me a ten dollar bill, which could buy a few ties in that day.
I always thought the Iranians were friendly and a bit goofy, after I got out and went to college, I had a bunch in my Chemistry classes and became good friends with one in my program.
I remember one time trying to explain to him what a “Cherry Boy” was, and the cultural barrier was a high one. When introduced, he said his name was (phonetically) “Homayun Azsmiley”...but “You can call me ‘Brian’...”
He was a good guy, but there were some others who were a-holes.
Middle Eastern and Persian cultures have issues with labor and technology, or are at least very different from us in that respect.
PP, you were very fortunate.
Just think, if it had been a Red Ryder BB gun, he could have shot your eye out! 8>/
Still 20/20 vision? :-)
Great recount.