Kavon Hakimzadeh

Kavon Hakimzadeh was born in Texas, United States[2] sometime in the 1960s,[1] to an Iranian father and American mother.[4] When he was a baby, Kavon Hakimzadeh moved to Iran.[5] Hak fondly remembers his childhood there in the 1970s.[5]

Hak attended an international school where they speak the Persian and English languages.[6][5] Hak's kept the faith of his Southern Baptist mother and has uncles and cousins who stayed nearby.[5][6]

It was, as Kavon Hakimzadeh said:

an "idyllic" childhood

.[4]

It changed quickly during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.[4][6][5] Hak lived in Iran until in 1979, then was forced to flee to the United States,[2] Hak's sister was nine years old while Hak's mother was seven months pregnant.[4][6][5] They hurried to the airplane as the airport was about to close, destined for a small town near Hattiesburg, Mississippi.[4][6][5]

Capt. Kavon Hakimzadeh, commanding officer of the Blue Ridge-class amphibious command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) carries a bouquet of flowers for his wife following the ship’s arrival at its forward-deployed port of Gaeta, Italy Oct. 27, 2017.

Hak remembered when he was 19 years old, he saw an aircraft carrier for the first time;[7] he recalled just sitting on the pier while watching an aircraft carrier.[7]

Captain Kavon Hakimzadeh took command of the USS Harry S. Truman in July 2019,[4][6][5] after 30 years of achieving a goal when he saw an aircraft carrier for the first time.[4][6][5] Back then, Hak was a young sailor who joined the Navy straight out of high school to serve his country.[4][6][5] After 32 years, Captain Kavon Hakimzadeh got the title of commanding officer aboard the Truman in July 2019.

Hak now commands one of the most formidable weapons on Earth; it is twenty floors tall.[2] Nuclear-powered and flying a red battle flag that reads

GIVE ’EM HELL

.[2] Kavon Hakimzadeh has achieved 3,100 flight hours and 815 arrested carrier landings.[8] Kavon Hakimzadeh serves with the VAW-120 Greyhawks as FRS instructor, student at the Naval War College, and work under instruction as Arthur S. Moreau.[8] While Kavon Hakimzadeh spoke to The Virginian-Pilot in August after taking the command of the ship, he told of his experience as a child:

"As an 11-year-old it was a little traumatic to have life as you know it completely change like that," Hakimzadeh said. "I think it is probably a lot to do with why I decided I wanted to serve and wanted to be in this line of work."

.[1] Hak's most recent assignment as an officer on USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) was from 2014 to 2016.[3] After being a Naval Flight Officer as E-2 Hawkeye, Hakimzadeh joined the Tigertails of VAW-125 for the sea tour.[3] Another sea duty assignment included Carrier Group Eight as Lieutenant,[3] VAW-123 Screwtops as department head and VAW-126 Seahawks as an officer.[3] The multiple tours included multiple deployments embarked aboard USS Enterprise, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carriers.[3]