Whoops. https://apnews.com/article/iran-lar...ks-gulf-oman-f3e8126a8603326e1abc4705c6629fcd TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The largest warship in the Iranian navy caught fire and later sank Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances, the latest calamity to strike one of the country’s vessels in recent years amid tensions with the West. The blaze began around 2:25 a.m. and firefighters tried to contain it, the Fars news agency reported, but their efforts failed to save the 207-meter (679-foot) Kharg, which was used to resupply other ships in the fleet at sea and conduct training exercises. State media reported 400 sailors and trainee cadets on board fled the vessel, with 33 suffering injuries. The ship sank near the Iranian port of Jask, some 1,270 kilometers (790 miles) southeast of Tehran on the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf. Satellite photos from Planet Labs Inc. analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Kharg off Jask with no sign of a fire as late as 11 a.m. Tuesday. Photos circulated on Iranian social media showed sailors wearing life jackets evacuating the vessel as a fire burned behind them. Fars published video of thick, black smoke rising from the ship early Wednesday morning. Satellites from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that track fires from space detected a blaze near Jask that started just before the time of the fire reported by Fars. Iranian officials offered no cause for the fire aboard the Kharg, though they said an investigation had begun.
I knew an Iranian in college, actually, I knew several, who was an engineering major. Nicest guy you ever met. He was in Naval ROTC destined for the Iranian Navy. I hope he's okay.
You know they are going to blame us. After all Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made us aware of the Jewish laser ray that sets forests on fire. .
Back in the early ‘70’s I was stationed in Philadelphia for a few months. The dorm was full of Iranian sailors, as we were refitting and selling old WWII destroyers to Iran. In general they were a great bunch of guys who had no problem (despite being at least nominal Muslims) keeping us underaged sailors stocked with alcohol. And it was interesting to observe (and even participate) in some of their traditions. I too have wondered about those guys. I can only hope they didn’t become cannon fodder in the Iraq/Iran War. Iran sent so many of their male population straight into the maw without preparation or resources. Almost as if they thought a human wave could beat a wall of lead. I still think of those guys all the time…..
Early 70's I had several Iranian friends going to PSU. They all drove Firebird Trans Am's, played a lot of soccer at West Moreland Park on weekends. They went nuts over buying Levi's at GI Joe's as they were illegal in Iran. Nice guys but their view on women as equals, I always argued with them about. I wondered about them too and Im sure they've wondered about me. Jean's, Firebirds & Alcohol they coveted while here at least.
We just watched this docudrama. Learned a bunch of stuff I didn't know - including DeLorean's direct hand in turning the Pontiac division from a granny division into a muscle car (think GTO and Firebird) division. Dude had it all going on. What a stupid he became.
Gotta agree with you about Iranians guys and their love of hot cars…..and their views on women. Those guys were major horndogs who were ALWAYS hitting on women….in the most boorish and sexist ways possible. And then they would ask us why American women didn’t want to date them. When we tried to explain that women didn’t want to be treated like meat (at least 24/7) they thought we were disrespecting their culture. Like I said, nice guys but the cultural baggage they carried was very hard to cut through…….
Like any religion, it can spawns extremism. Especially Muslim when it comes to treating women like 2 class citizens or worse. My son just got back form Qatar and Doha is partly secular but only for Westerners and Euro's, he said women there are so disrespected and treated badly.
Prior to the Islamic revolution in '79, Iran was progressive, very western. Saw a great movie a while back about how close they were with Jews - in both Iran and Israel - working with and for each other, inter-marriage, etc. It all went away.
We have more in common with the average citizen of Iran then we do with the citizens of our ally Saudi Arabia.
Out of the half dozen or so that I knew in college there was only one like that. He was into fast cars, cheap women and martial arts. I respected him and he treated me nice.
