RAFINO Report
ISSUE 21 - Fall 1998  - Return to Index

Destruction of Currency in Iran - 1979
By J. Claud Wallace

Dave Mikkelson covered the end of our time in Iran from his prospective Inside Iran (Spring 98 RAFINO Report).  In this short article I will cover the same event from my position at USAREUR in Heidelberg.  Fairly early that Sunday morning I received an urgent call from the war room.  My old War College classmate, Colonel Keith Barlow (the U.S. Commander in Iran) had called from Iran asking what procedures they had to follow in the destruction of currency.  My response to the duty officer was to the effect that Dave Mikkelson knew what to do and had the authority to do whatever he needed to do.  However, since the request had come from Keith I related the steps that had to be taken.

FLASHBACK - A few weeks earlier, on one of his visits to Heidelberg, Dave had stopped in to see me.  He told me that the situation in Iran was deteriorating and that we could expect some difficulty.  We talked about things that could impact the F&A operation including the procedures for destruction of money.  (That is why I answered the duty officer that Dave knew what to do.)  We also made a plan which, to the best of my memory, went something like this:  I told Dave that if the situation got bad he need not try to contact me for instructions; and in fact, he probably would not be able to contact me at that time.  I also told him that knowing that he was on the ground and that we had discussed procedures and what he would need to do, he had my full approval.

Now for the rest of the story.  After Dave got out of Iran and came through Heidelberg to brief us, he told me that, when I got the call from the war room, the money had already been burned.  Dave didn't burn it because, as he said in his article, he was in hiding.  His Air Force Sergeant was at the compound when "they came over the wall" and he torched the barrels of currency.  This was a classic example of where proper planning paid off.  It was obvious that Dave had prepared his people for handling the emergency. 

To my knowledge there has never been a question concerning authority to burn that currency, but even today I am ready to swear that I told Dave or his people to burn it.