Ross Perot Before He Was Ross Perot...

"If Ross Perot looked like Richard Crenna, he would have been elected President of the United States"--Robert Romano, November 1992

Hello 1000 Bookies:

This week we lost an American original, H. Ross Perot.  Most know Ross Perot from his run for the Presidency in 1992 and building the Reform Party which lasted through 2000.  In 1992, Ross Perot received the largest vote total percentage (19%) for a third political party since Teddy Roosevelt in 1912, 80 years before.  Perot took the political world by storm and then flamed out.  

However there was another side to Ross Perot.  In 1979, two of Perot's employees were taken prisoner by the crumbling regime of the Shah of Iran.  During the regime change from the Iran of the Shah to the Theocracy of the Ayatollah, Ross Perot hired and paid for a paramilitary rescue of his employees whom he smuggled out of Iran.  The operation and journey were chronicled in the book, On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett.  The book was made into a movie staring Richard Crenna and Burt Lancaster.  My father used to say that Ross Perot was able to do what the US Government could not, get his people out of Iran.  

I was surprised that this episode was not mentioned more during the presidential campaign.  I highly recommend reading the book and the movie.  Godspeed Mr. Perot.