The man commanding the most formidable American aircraft carrier in the Middle East fled Iran as a child to live in the United States.
Capt. Kavon Hakimzadeh, who is at the helm of the USS Harry S. Truman, is an Iranian-American who left Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Born in Texas to an Iranian father and an American mother, his family moved to his father’s home country when he was a baby. He spent much of his childhood there, attending an international school and learning to speak Farsi and English.
In 1979, Hakimzadeh’s “idyllic” childhood was interrupted by the Islamic Revolution, which ended in the overthrow of the American-backed shah and the institution of a Muslim theocracy in Iran.
“As an 11-year-old, it was a little traumatic to have life as you know it completely change like that,” he told the Virginian-Pilot in August. “I think it is probably a lot to do with why I decided I wanted to serve and wanted to be in this line of work.”
The family, which then also included his 9-year-old sister, caught a flight to the U.S. just as the airport was closing and settled down outside of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. After high school, Hakimzadeh, now 51, enlisted in the Navy in 1987. He received a Navy ROTC scholarship and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University before becoming a flight officer on the E-2 Hawkeye, a command described as the “digital quarterback” of combat missions.
During his 33-year career, the captain has deployed eight times in aircraft carriers, flown missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, and been awarded medals including the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star.
He now commands the nuclear-powered USS Harry S. Truman, which is 20 stories tall and bears a red battle flag that reads, “GIVE ’EM HELL.” The carrier houses 5,000 crew members and can scramble at short notice dozens of fighter jets with an arsenal of precision bombs.
@USNavy Capt. Kavon Hakimzadeh assumed command of @USSHARRYSTRUMAN today while underway for Composite Training Unit Exercise in the #AtlanticOcean.
Pictured is outgoing Truman skipper, Capt. Nicholas Dienna, as he departed the ship after the ceremony.#GiveEmHell pic.twitter.com/uY4q57DBnl
— U.S. 2nd Fleet (@US2ndFleet) July 24, 2019
“I love to tell people that it’s a testament to our merit-based Navy that a kid at 19, 20 years old can look at these things and go, ‘You know what? I want to command those one day,'” Hakimzadeh said. “And it’s certainly a testament to the United States of America that a guy named Kavon Hakimzadeh can do that.”
Hakimzadeh, who is known as “Captain Hak,” is just one of many Iranians who fled the nation as children, later going on to serve in the American armed forces.
“Because of where we came from, we are very passionate about the cause of freedom, and we want to contribute in any way we can,” Assal Ravandi, who was an Army intelligence analyst from 2010 to 2014 and has been deployed to Afghanistan, said this week.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iraq have grown in recent weeks after Iranian attacks on American assets in Iraq resulted in the death of an American defense contractor. President Trump responded by striking Iran-backed facilities in Iraq and Syria, which led to an attack by protesters on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Trump then ordered an airstrike that killed the country’s top general last week, and Iran retaliated this week by firing over a dozen ballistic missiles at two military bases housing American troops in Iraq.
Iranian veterans have since been left caught between two worlds, worried about their families still in Iran while also knowing how many have suffered under the Islamic Republic regime.
“No one knows what to do,” Ravandi said. “But if we are asked by our country, we will serve. I would reenlist tomorrow.”
