SOLDIER TO SHARE HIS STORY OF WAR
By Emanuel Parker Staff Writer

Whittier Daily News, CA
Nov 9 2006

PASADENA – Shant Kenderian will be in Pasadena next week to discuss
the harrowing experience of being drafted into the Iraqi army and
forced to fight in the Iran-Iraq War and in Operation Desert Storm.

Kenderian has written a book about his experiences, "1001 Nights in
the Iraqi Army: The True Story of a Chicago Student held as a POW by
the Americans During Desert Storm."

He will speak at 1 p.m. Wednesday at St. Gregory, the Illuminator
Apostolic Church, 2215 Colorado Blvd. and sign copies of his book.

Tickets to the event will be $15 and include a noon luncheon.

Kenderian was in Iraq visiting his father in 1980 when Saddam Hussein
issued an order to all men between the ages of 18 and 55, "Register
for the army within 72 hours or be shot!"

The high school senior was born in Iraq and discovered Iraqi officials
considered him an Iraqi citizen, despite his American Green Card.

He served in the front lines of the army during the Iran-Iraq war
and was transferred to the Iraqi navy during Operation Desert Storm.

The boat he was assigned to hit an Iraqi mine, and he was captured
by U.S. Naval forces and held at various POW camps in Kuwait before
re-establishing his Green Card status.

"I served in both wars," he said, "but never had a gun. You can’t
fight when you don’t have a gun."

He also said the government supplied his boat with the wrong caliber
ammunition.

"The contrast between the American and Iraqi soldiers and the way they
were equipped was astounding," he said. "The 15 soldiers on the L-87
had – collectively – two guns, one helmet and 15 old gas masks with
ineffective chemical kits."

Kenderian earned an undergraduate degree in engineering in Baghdad.

He earned his Ph.D. from the Materials Science and Engineering
Department at Johns Hopkins University in 2002, and in September 2002
became an American citizen.

He joined a NASA team in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Columbia
disaster, and helped investigate the cause of the disaster and make
improvements on the shuttle.

He is currently vice president of the Armenian Engineers and Scientists
of America, based in Glendale, and is a senior member of the technical
staff at the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo.