FORMER POW TO SHARE HIS STORY
By Emanuel Parker Staff Writer
Pasadena Star-News (California)
November 8, 2006 Wednesday
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. 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."
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. He is currently vice president of the Armenian
Engineers and Scientists of America, based in Glendale.