“If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters … the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump said on social media, adding that the U.S. was “locked and loaded.” [More]
And Washington’s warning…?
Not at the expense of American lives, and if we do go in, as I’ve consistently maintained for like, forever, I want a declaration of war so that our representatives — and those who voted for them — can share credit for happy results and culpability for catastrophic ones.
I got the cutlass in the picture back in 1962 for around 100 rials as I recall, and wore it on my belt patrolling the walled compound around our house in June of 1963 following the 15 Khordad protests, after the arrest of Ayatollah Khomeni. As longtime regulars know, I lived there between ’60 and ’65, when Dad started up and managed the BF Goodrich tire factory there.
We went to the Community School (that’s me, last row on the left) because our parents wanted us to have exposure to international influences and higher education standards than they believed we could get at the American School. I recall seeing thousands of protesters, many carrying sticks and long tools, looking just like my Angry Mob and marching past on a street a block away. Again, as I vaguely recall, I believe the American embassy sent some Marines to guard the school to make sure U.S. citizens would not be attacked.
Anyway, back to the sword– that night I strapped it on and patrolled the yard with my Daisy BB rifle and vicious hell hound/ Alsatian mix, Pepsi (who would happily maul outsiders but tolerate my baby sister sitting on her back pulling her ears), while trying to grit my teeth the way I remembered John Wayne doing it in The Alamo (which we’d seen recently at either the American Club or Officer’s Club, I don’t remember which). We were, of course, in a residential neighborhood to the north of the trouble, but I didn’t know that, and I guess the parents didn’t want to discourage the impulse.
Interesting side note, when the “revolution” came, there was no shortage of useful idiot “Christian” enablers, just like we have today with “faith community” gun-grabbers:
Some Iranian Christians greeted Khomeini at Tehran’s airport in February 1979, and others voted in the national referendum in March in favor of establishing the Islamic Republic.
Anyway, I saw the story indicating things could be changing quickly, looked up and saw my sword, and these recollections just kind of flowed out. I hope the Iranian people can sort things out for themselves but what I fear will happen is another wave of refugees here, who like so many who came before them, will forget their own past and demand we change to accommodate them.
Right around that same time my future Father-in-Law was a USAF O6 attached to the US Embassy in Tehran and a regular tennis partner with the Shah. He, my future wife, and the rest of the family lived in the Embassy compound. Later, after Jimmy Carter pulled the rug out from under the Shah’s regime, then denied him entry into the US for cancer treatment, my then retired Father-in-Law ran the Shah’s security detail out of the Holiday Inn on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. That led to my in-laws establishing a residence in Coral Gables and my wife and I meeting while students at Florida International University’s west Dade campus.
We used to go to that embassy to fill up a giant tank with drinking water.
And many years later I learned that a coworker had been one of the hostages there during the “unpleasantness.”
Very cool story and sword!
Mr Codrea
Not wanting a prolonged debate, since I can’t see the blade, but based on the handguard and on the locale where you purchased it, I would characterize the sword pictured as a scimitar vs. cutlass.
The open handguard, especially the shape, is not typical of a cutlass or saber, both of which typically had basket guards or enclosing hand guards.
All three types have a single edged curved blade, with the Cutlass typically shorter and heavier than the other two.
However, it’s your sword and you have the right to call it whatever you like, especially since you’ve been calling it that since 1962.
Have a Good Day
Probably just my ignorance of swords… I’ve thought of it as a cutlass since I got it, but I was a kid and never questioned it. I always thought scimitars had wider blades.
And point of order: The only people I expect to call me “Mr. Codrea” are the wife and kids, and for some reason they just laugh.