“I’m lost,” the Iranian pilot cried into the microphone. I was a few months into my jet training course at Laredo Air Force Base, Texas, in 1971. At that time, the Shah of Iran, a close ally of the United States, sent his pilots for training in the United States. They were a friendly, capable lot, but this one became disoriented over the Southwest Texas terrain, ran out of gas, ejected from the aircraft and parachuted to safety. His cry of desperation still rings in my ears.