The Flight of the PatriotThe Flight of the Patriot

This is a gripping, page-turning memoir of a US-trained Iranian fighter pilot who flew in the Shah of Iran's and the Ayatollah Khomeini's air force.

Sharifirad was shot down in the Iraqi-Iranian war in the early 1990s. Saved by a group of local Kurds, he returned to Iran where he became a national hero. A movie, called Eagles , based on his rescue, was made in Iran in 1984. Sharifirad's story was also published in Iran in a book called Crash on the Fortieth Mission . Shortly after his return to Iran, the Ayatollah sent him to Pakistan as military attaché. When he returned toTeheran, he was accused of being a CIA spy and was imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured. Sharifirad served a prison term and upon his release, despite constant surveillance, managed to smuggle his family out of the country. Eventually, he too managed a harrowing escape from Iran via Turkey to Canada, where he now lives with his family in Vancouver.

The book also provides an absorbing historical and cultural backdrop to Iran.