The Flight of The Patriot (Escape from Revolutionary Iran)

Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2010. Hardcover. Nea Fine/Near Fine. 8vo. SIGNED with inscription to Canadian politician Michael Ignatieff to FFEP: "To: Michael Ignatieff, I hope you find it informative and help you to support the people in the world who's right always been ignored. All the best, Yadi. Feb. 2nd, 2011." 265 p.p. Sixteen unnumbered pages of colour and B&W photos. Black cloth boards with green lettering to spine. Chip to foot of Acknowledgements page at rear. Dust jacket has minor bumping to edges and corners, publisher's sticker to head of front flap, else fine. Yadi Sharifirad trained as a fighter pilot in the USA and in 1972 returned to fly with the Iranian Air Force. When war broke out with Iraq, Sharifirad was promoted to squadron commander and flew mission after mission before being shot down over enemy territory. Rescued by Kurdish rebels, Sharifirad made his way back to Iran where he was welcomed as a hero, a living martyr. Subsequently assigned to Pakistan as a military attache, and hoping this position on top of his war record would shiled him from the antipathy normally displayed by Ayatollah Khomeini toward American-trained fighter pilots - all but a lucky few had already been executed - Sharifirad's confidence was misplaced. One day he was abruptly abducted, imprisoned and tortured on trumped up charges of spying for the C.I.A. Eventually released, he used his military contacts, and a brother-in-law at Dalhousie University, to get his family to Canada. The Flight of the Patriot is an exciting, fast-paced escape story. It is also about love of country and maintaining faith in a land of skewed republican values.