Those meeting Major Hassan Granmayeh today see a highly-intelligent aeronautical scientist who doesn’t immediately stand out from the crowd. But his life story does. Granmayeh was once a decorated fighter pilot in the Iranian Air Force who refused to serve the revolution. What happened next is revealed in “The Last Escape: Ex-Fighter Pilot of the Iranian Air Force.”
Granmayeh was a fighter pilot in the Iranian Air Force, who flew the F-5 and F-4 during his service times. He had two major accidents with F-5 aircraft and survived both accidents. He served The Shah’s regime for 15 years and six months followed by 10 months in the revolution of 1979. He escaped Iran with his family, and came to the United States in December 1982.
Due to his mother’s illness in Iran, he decided to go back to Iran, to visit his mother on her death-bed. The government of Iran confiscated his passport and forbid him from leaving the country, until he made a risky decision to escape the Iran for the last time.
“When I put my foot down, stood up for my values and refused to serve the revolution, I risked almost certain imprisonment and execution,” explains the author. “But for the sake of the lives of my family, I knew we had to get out. Looking back on it now, I can’t believe that we actually got away with escaping Iran at a time of great conflict. We had our own brushes with death along the way, as the book depicts. We’re lucky to be alive.”
“Readers will discover the social and cultural elements of Iran that have undergone great change over the past few decades. People in the West will become acutely aware of how, in some parts of the world, basic human rights and liberties are denied at the hands of oppressive governments. My family fell victim — but we got out while we still could.”
The book is available now on Amazon.com.