My Army Years - GroundLevelSightsIran

Headquarters Line

Topo House Line

Measuring Gravity Line

Aerial Sights Line

Base Camps Line

Driving Around Line

Ground Level Sights Line

Helicopters Line

People

Chris Jensen Line

Tehran Flight Line Line

Views Around Tehran Line

Ethiopia

AirForceCrash Line

Army Home Page
Images Home Page

GroundLevelSightsIran

Ground Level Sights is a broad group of photos intended to show the varied nature and terrain in Iran.

Cities, towns, barren wilderness. About 3/4 of the way down the page are a number of photos of Persepolis, which Iranians call Tahkt-e-Jamshid. I've marked it on the map on the main page here. Persepolis was one of the greatest cities in the world before Alexander the Great killed everybody there and burned the place down. It is located on a significant road heading out of Shiraz, so I was able to visit more than once with nobody to bother us. Today it is much more protected.

A bit further up the page is a 180-degree panorama, designed to show the middle of the desert. I actually took 360 degrees of nothing, but back then I didn't understand how to properly expose for a full panorama, and 180 was about the best I could do.

On the main page I mentioned getting booted out of Iran. The two pictures after the panorama show the reason: I had two trucks with Iranian Army sergeants driving them. We would go 5 or so miles across nothing, take a gravity reading, and then wait 30 minutes for the other truck to show up. To this day I don't know what his problem was, but it was becoming my problem. I told him to ride with the other driver, and I drove his truck.

When we got back to basecamp, he went to his lieutenant to complain, who went to my lieutenant, who told me in no-uncertain-terms that I was not to do that. I told him that if it happened again I would do it again. It devolved into a major argument. Part of the problem was that the rules we operated under said you had to be 21 to drive, and I was only 20. The lieutenant went to the commanding officer (a Major) who happened to be visiting camp with our senior civilian advisor, and demanded that I be court-martialed for insubordination.

The Major told both of us that it would be a big hassle, and he didn't want to do it. Instead, he said: "We came down to get a volunteer to go to Ethiopia to start a gravity program there, and you just volunteered."

It was temporary duty, max 180 days, and when I came back the lieutenant was gone and everything was back to normal. I got an Army Commendation Medal out of it, but that and $1.50 will get you a cup of coffee. I haven't bought a cup of coffee in years, so it is probably more than that now.

At one point we learned that Iran had established a new tide gauge at Bandar Abbas, so a group of us were sent down there to run a level line to tie into the rest of the network. It was really hot, so the heat wave distortion limited our work to the early morning. The rest of the time we mostly hung out in our "hotel" which did have window air conditioners, and room service.

We met some sailors from the USS New, a destroyer, in the Bazaar. They invited us out to the ship for a tour, as they were "showing the flag." Talk about cramped conditions! We then had them up to the hotel room for refreshments. To a man we outranked them, they had more time in service, and they all joined the navy to avoid the army.

Comments? Send mail to donb@arcatapet.net
Snail Mail: Arcata Pet, 600 F Street, Arcata, CA 95521-6301 USA