The educational background of most combatants is perhaps their most unusual shared trait. At this base, there were a remarkable number of graduates from universities in the US, Britain, France, West Germany and even India and the Phillipines. Godfrey Jansen, a Middle East expert who visited the National Liberation Army's bases, called it "one of the most highly educated armies in the world." With the large number of western educated combatants, it isn't surprising to find books by Graham Green, John Le Carré and John Updike in their original languages on the shelves of the base's spacious library.
As
you become acquainted with the backgrounds of these combatants, you are
amazed at the harmony of this microcosm. You find a graduate in aircraft
engineering from Northrop University in California heading the base's mechanics
section. Working alongside him is a 19 year-old villager from Isfahan province
who deserted Khomeini's army to join the National Liberation Army only a
few weeks ago. When these two work and laugh together, it is hard to believe
that heir social backgrounds are so different and even contradictory. In
the National Liberation Army, there are many such examples Maximum Self-Reliance
Perhaps because of the concentration of college graduates and profes sionals or perhaps by virtue of necessity, the NLA is distinguished by its self-sufficiency. At this base, everything is done by National Liberation Army combatants - from food preparation to technical services and installation, from political education to military planning. In the communications room, dozens of men and women combatants in laboratory overalls are working on communications equipment. Spread before them are disassembled FM and SW mobile and central wirelesses to be tested or repaired. The combination of oscilloscopes and various electrical equipment, white-clad workers and floures cent lights creates a kind of space-age laboratory atmosphere. Only the Farsi "No Smoking" signs and the red scarves of the women combatants recall the complex's setting.
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