Wings Over Persia

Lou Martin was an air force pilot for 22 years and a captain for Japan airlines from 1970 to 1975, before joining a small cadre of foreign pilots in Iran hired to fly a variety of aircraft throughout the Middle East.

His passengers ranged from family members of the late Shah of Iran to high-ranking Iranian government officials, and oil field roughnecks. His observations relating to these flights are outlined in thrilling chapter after chapter. He invites the reader to mentally share his cockpit during these exciting flights.

Captain Martin was living and working in Iran during the disturbing days of 1978 when Islamic hard-liners rioted in the streets of Tehran demanding the overthrow of the Shah.

The tempo of the revolution increased to the point where thousands of demonstrators were killed by the Shah's army forcing him and his family to flee to Egypt. His abdication allowed the firebrand leader Ayatollah Khomeini to become Iran's despotic leader, and form a ruthless fundamentalist Islamic government. Several of Captain Martin's friends and colleagues were summarily tried and executed by the Islamic revolutionary guards.

During the peak of the revolution a personal friend was stabbed to death by unknown assailants, and fearing for his own life he hurriedly left Iran. His exodus forced him to abandon thousands of dollars of unpaid salary, a Volkswagen and other personal property.

In the spring of 1979 he was prepared to return to Iran in an attempt to recover lost property, but an extraordinarily lucky event in Rome, Italy, convinced him that returning to Iran would very likely expose him to arrest and confinement. Faced with this dismal probability he returned to the United States to pursue a safer and less exciting life.

"Congratulations on being the 2004 recipient of the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame's Best Aviation writing by a Minnesotan! We enjoyed your exciting personal account of your days flying as a captain for an air charter company in Iran. Your book was exciting and personal, definitely the type of aviation writing the MAHOF wishes to honor and encourage with its annual award."

Duane Jacobson - Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame